Launches
ON RECORD28MISSIONS
24 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1965 and the latest in 2026.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1961 · 65 years ago today
Kennedy names the decade
President Kennedy asked Congress to commit to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was out.
read more2008 · 18 years ago today
Phoenix lands in the Martian arctic
Phoenix set down on Mars' northern plains, dug into the soil and found water ice a few centimetres down.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
May 25 in spaceflight
28 launches flew on May 25, the earliest of them in 1965, and 24 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 25. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD7ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in -240.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on May 25
1961
In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".
Joint session of the United States Congress ↗1961
Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress, that the United States "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
Apollo program ↗2008
NASA's Phoenix lander touches down in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
NASA ↗2012
In a test flight, SpaceX's Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 ↗2012
The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
SpaceX Dragon 1 ↗
Launches on May 25Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
28 launches
ONLINE
- 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-47SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Electron | Ready, Aim, PREFIRE (PREFIRE 1)RLSUCCESS
- 2023SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity 25VGSUCCESS
- 2023Nuri | NEXTSat-2 & SNIPEKARISUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 5 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
- 2020LauncherOne | Launch DemoVOFAILURE
- 2017Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat | EKS-2 (Tundra 2) (Kosmos 2518)VKSSUCCESS
- 2017Electron | It's a TestRLFAILURE
- 2013Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-5 (USA-243)ULASUCCESS
- 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF10VGSUCCESS
- 2007Long March 2D | Yaogan Weixing 2CASCSUCCESS
- 2004Soyuz U | Progress M-49RFSASUCCESS
- 1996Proton | Gorizont 32KhSCSUCCESS
- 1994Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 69VKSFAILURE
- 1989Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 17LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-2M/NKh 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 89CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Sfera 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Saturn IB | Skylab 2NASASUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 12CCCPFAILURE
- 1972Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 17USAFSUCCESS
- 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Thor Delta C1 | Explorer 32USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Voskhod | Zenit-4 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Saturn I | Pegasus 2NASASUCCESS
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.
- VIEW
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.