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August 30 in spaceflight

27 orbital launches flew on August 30, the earliest of them in 1961, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on August 30. Below are the pictures NASA published on August 30 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

27MISSIONS

24 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

7ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1757 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for August 30, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on August 30

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

How many moons can you see? The best answer is five: four orbiting Jupiter and Luna orbiting Earth. This multi-moon picture was possible because Earth's Moon moved directly in front of Jupiter last week. The featured image is a series of exposures near alignment taken from Westchester, New York, USA. The sunlit crescent of Earth's Moon, on the lower left, is overexposed, while the Moon's night side, on the upper right, is faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up nearly vertically above our Moon, listed from bottom to top, are Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa. Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting Jupiter and has made close passes near three of these moons.Tomorrow's picture: stairway to heaven

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2025

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Marina Prol — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2024

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Lorand Fenyes — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2023

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Gianni Tumino — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2022

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2021

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

What happened on August 30

  1. 1757

    Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf: Russian force under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin beats a smaller Prussian force commanded by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt, during the Seven Years' War.

    Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf ↗

  2. 1942

    Second World War: German field marshal Erwin Rommel launched the last major Axis offensive of the Western Desert campaign, attacking British positions near El Alamein, Egypt.

    World War II ↗

  3. 1967

    Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African-American Supreme Court justice.

    Thurgood Marshall ↗

  4. 1967

    Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

    Thurgood Marshall ↗

  5. 1983

    STS-8: The Space Shuttle Challenger takes off on the first night launch of the shuttle program. Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space on this mission.

    STS-8 ↗

  6. 1984

    Discovery, the third orbiter of NASA's Space Shuttle program, lifted off on its maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

    Space Shuttle Discovery ↗

  7. 1984

    STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

    STS-41-D ↗

Every launch on August 30

27 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-7SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | SAOCOM 1BSpXSUCCESS
  3. 2019Kuaizhou 1A | KX-09 & TY-1-07 (Xiaoxiang-1-07)EPSUCCESS
  4. 2019Rokot / Briz-KM | Geo-IK-2 N13L (Kosmos 2540)VKSSUCCESS
  5. 2012Atlas V 401 | Radiation Belt Storm Probe AULASUCCESS
  6. 2001Ariane 44L | INTELSAT 902ASASUCCESS
  7. 1998Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 2AKhSCSUCCESS
  8. 1995Proton | Potok 9KhSCSUCCESS
  9. 1993Delta II | GPS IIA-13USAFSUCCESS
  10. 1991Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 9CCCPFAILURE
  11. 1991Mu-3S-II | YohkohISASSUCCESS
  12. 1990Ariane 44LP | Skynet 4C & Eutelsat-2 F1ASASUCCESS
  13. 1988Molniya-M | US-K 57CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1984Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-41-DLSOCSUCCESS
  15. 1984Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 51LCCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1983Molniya-M | Molniya-3 32LCCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1983Space Shuttle Challenger / OV-099 | STS-8ROISUCCESS
  18. 1982Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 29CCCPFAILURE
  19. 1982Tsiklon-2 | US-A 22CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1977Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 38CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1976Feng Bao 1 | JSSW 3CASCSUCCESS
  22. 1974Scout D-1 | ANSNASASUCCESS
  23. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 50CCCPFAILURE
  24. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 41CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1973Molniya-M | Molniya-1 24CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-2M 31CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 29USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links here cost you nothing extra.

  • LISTING

    Cosmos — Carl Sagan

    Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan

    The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

    Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.

    VIEW

BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.

LINKS AMAZON.COM

Sources and licences

Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.

Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.