Launches
ON RECORD16MISSIONS
16 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2023.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
2014 · 12 years ago today
Philae lands on a comet
Philae touched down on comet 67P, bounced twice, and came to rest in shadow where its solar panels could not charge.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
November 12 in spaceflight
16 launches flew on November 12, the earliest of them in 1960, and 16 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 12. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD5ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1980.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on November 12
1980
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.
NASA ↗1981
Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.
Space Shuttle program ↗1995
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.
Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗2014
The European Space Agency's lander Philae touched down on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet.
European Space Agency ↗2014
The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Philae (spacecraft) ↗
Launches on November 12Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
16 launches
ONLINE
- 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | O3b mPower 5 & 6SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Galaxy 31 & 32SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 7 | Tianzhou-5CASCSUCCESS
- 2020Long March 3B | Tiantong-1-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2017Antares 230 | Cygnus CRS OA-8 (S.S. Gene Cernan)OASUCCESS
- 2009Long March 2C | Shi Jian 11-01CASCSUCCESS
- 1997Ariane 44L | Sirius 2 & Indostar 1ASASUCCESS
- 1997Proton-K/DM-2M | KuponKhSCSUCCESS
- 1995Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-74LMSOSUCCESS
- 1991Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 73 to 78CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-2ROISUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 29CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Voskhod | Zenit-2 78CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Voskhod | Zenit-4 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Molniya 8K78 | Venera-2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1960Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 17USAFSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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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.