Launches
ON RECORD24MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2026.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
February 12 in spaceflight
24 launches flew on February 12, the earliest of them in 1961, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on February 12. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1947.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on February 12
1947
The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
Sikhote-Alin meteorite ↗2001
The NASA space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
NASA ↗2001
NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
NEAR Shoemaker ↗
Launches on February 12Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
24 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Ariane 64 | Amazon Leo (LE-01)ASASUCCESS
- 2026Vulcan VC4S | USSF-87ULASUCCESS
- 2026Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Elektro-L No.5KhSCSUCCESS
- 2026Smart Dragon 3 | PRSC-EO2 & 6 satellitesCHNRSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-4SpXSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 3B / YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M3 & M4CASCSUCCESS
- 2010Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | Intelsat 16ILSSUCCESS
- 2009Ariane 5 ECA | Hot Bird 10, NSS-9, Spirale A, Spirale BASASUCCESS
- 2005Ariane 5 ECA | XTAR-EUR, Maqsat-B2, SloshsatASASUCCESS
- 2000Proton-K/DM-2M | Garuda 1KhSCSUCCESS
- 1997M-V | HarukaISASSUCCESS
- 1994Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 101 to 106VKSSUCCESS
- 1991Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 353-360CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Titan 34B | Quasar 7USAFSUCCESS
- 1986N-2 | Yuri 2BNASDASUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Parus 26CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Molniya-M | US-K 13CCCPFAILURE
- 1979Tsiklon-3 | Okean-E 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Kosmos-3M | Sfera 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Voskhod | Zenit-4M 60CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-P1-Yu 2CCCPFAILURE
- 1961Molniya 8K78 | Venera-1VA 2CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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- VIEW
LISTING
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's tour of the universe and how we came to understand it. It keeps the science in.
- VIEW
LISTING
Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan
Sagan's case for people leaving Earth one day, and an honest look at how hard that would be.
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LISTING
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
A science-fiction novel from the author of The Martian, built around solving one engineering problem after another.
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LINKS AMAZON.COM
Sources and licences
Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images come only from Wikimedia Commons, which doesn't accept non-free content. Each thumbnail links to its file page, which lists its licence and author.
Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Many of them belong to the photographer or a partner agency, so we only show the ones credited to NASA alone.