Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
20 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1959 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1962 · 64 years ago today
We choose to go to the Moon
Kennedy told a crowd at Rice University that the United States would go to the Moon in that decade because it was hard.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
September 12 in spaceflight
25 launches flew on September 12, the earliest of them in 1959, and 20 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 12. 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 1959.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on September 12
1966
Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions and Artemis II).
Gemini 11 ↗1991
NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-48 to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.
Space Shuttle Discovery ↗1992
Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel to space.
Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗1992
NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47, which marks the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.
NASA ↗2013
NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.
NASA ↗
Launches on September 12Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Nusantara LimaSpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | BlueBird Block 1SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-2SpXSUCCESS
- 2022New Shepard | NS-23BOFAILURE
- 2020Kuaizhou 1A | Jilin-1-02CEPFAILURE
- 2020Astra Rocket 3.1 | Maiden FlightASFAILURE
- 2019Long March 4B | Ziyuan-2D, Tianyi MV-1, BNU-1CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS-06RFSASUCCESS
- 2015Long March 3B/E | TJS-1 (TJSW-1)CASCSUCCESS
- 2006Long March 3A | Zhongxing 22ACASCSUCCESS
- 2002PSLV | KALPANA-1ISROSUCCESS
- 1996Delta II | GPS IIA-18USAFSUCCESS
- 1993Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51LSOCSUCCESS
- 1992Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-47LSOCSUCCESS
- 1991Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-48LSOCSUCCESS
- 1985Ariane 3 | ECS 3 & Spacenet 3ASAFAILURE
- 1984Long March 2C | FSW-0 6CASCSUCCESS
- 1975Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Proton | Luna-16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 10CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Titan II GLV | Gemini XINASASUCCESS
- 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | GATV 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Molniya 8K78 | Venera 2cCCCPFAILURE
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 30USAFSUCCESS
- 1959Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-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.
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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.