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February 7 in spaceflight

21 orbital launches flew on February 7, the earliest of them in 1967, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 7. Below are the pictures NASA published on February 7 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

21MISSIONS

20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1967, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1979 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 7, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on February 7

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

Crescent Enceladus

2026

Crescent Enceladus

Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured during November 2016 as Cassini's camera was pointed in a nearly sunward direction about 130,000 kilometers from the moon's bright crescent. In fact, the distant world reflects over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow. A mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon. Data and images collected during Cassini's flybys have revealed water vapor and ice grains spewing from south polar geysers and evidence of an ocean of liquid water hidden beneath the moon's icy crust.

NASA · public domain

LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy

2025

LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy

The giant galaxy cataloged as LEDA 1313424 is about two and a half times the size of our own Milky Way. Its remarkable appearance in this recently released Hubble Space Telescope image strongly suggests its nickname "The Bullseye Galaxy". Known as a collisional ring galaxy it has nine rings confirmed by telescopic observations, rippling from its center like waves from a pebble dropped into a pond. Of course, the pebble dropped into the Bullseye galaxy was a galaxy itself. Telescopic observations identify the blue dwarf galaxy at center-left as the likely collider, passing through the giant galaxy's center and forming concentric rings in the wake of their gravitational interaction. The Bullseye Galaxy lies some 567 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. At that distance, this stunning Hubble image would span about 530,000 light-years.

NASA · public domain

The Heart Shaped Antennae Galaxies

2024

The Heart Shaped Antennae Galaxies

Are these two galaxies really attracted to each other? Yes, gravitationally, and the result appears as an enormous iconic heart -- at least for now. Pictured is the pair of galaxies cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039,known as the Antennae Galaxies. Because they are only 60 million light years away, close by intergalactic standards, the pair is one of the best studied interacting galaxies on the night sky. Their strong attraction began about a billion years ago when they passed unusually close to each other. As the two galaxies interact, their stars rarely collide, but new stars are formed when their interstellar gases crash together. Some new stars have already formed, for example, in the long antennae seen extending out from the sides of the dancing duo. By the time the galaxy merger is complete, likely over a billion years from now, billions of new stars may have formed. Open Science: Browse 3,300+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library

© Kent E. Biggs — used with the credit NASA publishes

A Comet and Two Dippers

2023

A Comet and Two Dippers

Can you still see the comet? Yes. Even as C/2022 E3 (ZTF) fades, there is still time to see it if you know where and when to look. Geometrically, Comet ZTF has passed its closest to both the Sun and the Earth and is now headed back to the outer Solar System. Its orbit around the Sun has it gliding across the northern sky all month, after passing near Polaris and both the Big and Little Dippers last month. Pictured, Comet ZTF was photographed between the two dippers in late January while sporting an ion tail that extended over 10 degrees. Now below naked-eye visibility, Comet ZTF can be found with binoculars or a small telescope and a good sky map. A good time to see the comet over the next week is after the Sun sets -- but before the Moon rises. The comet will move nearly in front of Mars in a few days Comet ZTF Gallery: Notable Submissions to APOD

© Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava — used with the credit NASA publishes

Blue Straggler Stars in Globular Cluster M53

2021

Blue Straggler Stars in Globular Cluster M53

If our Sun were part of this star cluster, the night sky would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. This cluster, known as M53 and cataloged as NGC 5024, is one of about 250 globular clusters that survive in our Galaxy. Most of the stars in M53 are older and redder than our Sun, but some enigmatic stars appear to be bluer and younger. These young stars might contradict the hypothesis that all the stars in M53 formed at nearly the same time. These unusual stars are known as blue stragglers and are unusually common in M53. After much debate, blue stragglers are now thought to be stars rejuvenated by fresh matter falling in from a binary star companion. By analyzing pictures of globular clusters like the featured image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers use the abundance of stars like blue stragglers to help determine the age of the globular cluster and hence a limit on the age of the universe. M53, visible with a binoculars towards the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices), contains over 250,000 stars and is one of the furthest globulars from the center of our Galaxy.

NASA · public domain

What happened on February 7

  1. 1979

    Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.

    Pluto ↗

  2. 1984

    During the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-B, astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart performed the first untethered spacewalk (pictured).

    Space Shuttle Challenger ↗

  3. 1984

    Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

    Space Shuttle program ↗

  4. 2001

    Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-98, carrying the Destiny laboratory module to the International Space Station.

    Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗

  5. 2016

    North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.

    Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 ↗

Every launch on February 7

21 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-33SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2026Long March 2F/G | Chinese Reusable Space VehicleCASCSUCCESS
  3. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Amazonas NexusSpXSUCCESS
  4. 2016Unha | Kwangmyongsong-4NADASUCCESS
  5. 2016Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-M (Kosmos 2514)VKSSUCCESS
  6. 2013Ariane 5 ECA | Azerspace-1/Africasat-1a & Amazonas 3ASASUCCESS
  7. 2008Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-122USASUCCESS
  8. 2001Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-98USASUCCESS
  9. 2001Ariane 44L | SICRAL 1ASASUCCESS
  10. 1999Delta 7426-9.5 | StardustUSAFSUCCESS
  11. 1994Titan 401A Centaur | Milstar 1USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1991Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 57CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1990H-1 | Momo 1bMHISUCCESS
  14. 1987Soyuz U | Zenit-8 43CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1986Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1 4CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1980Titan IIID | KH-11 3USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 16CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1977Soyuz-U | Soyuz 24CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1969Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 18CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1968Molniya-M | Ye-6LS 112CCCPFAILURE
  21. 1967Soyuz | Kosmos 140CCCPSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

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

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  • 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.