Launches
ON RECORD29MISSIONS
26 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1958 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 4 in spaceflight
29 launches flew on December 4, the earliest of them in 1958, and 26 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 4. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD3ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1639.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 4
1639
Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree made the first successful observation of a transit of Venus (example pictured) from Earth.
Jeremiah Horrocks ↗1965
Launch of Gemini 7 with crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The Gemini 7 spacecraft was the passive target for the first crewed space rendezvous performed by the crew of Gemini 6A.
Gemini 7 ↗1998
The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
Unity (ISS module) ↗
Launches on December 4Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
29 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-25SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2580 (Lotos-S1 #9)VKSSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-70SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Kuaizhou 1A | Haishao-1EPSUCCESS
- 2023Ceres-1 | Tianyan-16 & Starpool-01AGESUCCESS
- 2023Mir (3 stage) | S-STEPADDSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 2C | MisrSat-2CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Ariane 5 ECA | GSAT-11 & GEO-KOMPSAT-2AASASUCCESS
- 1999Pegasus XL HAPS | Orbcomm-D2 - D8OSCSUCCESS
- 1998Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-88USASUCCESS
- 1996Delta II | Mars PathfinderUSAFSUCCESS
- 1990Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 56CCCPSUCCESS
- 1990Tsiklon-2 | US-P 36CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 41CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Titan 34D | KH-11 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 51CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Titan IIID | KH-9 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Canyon 4USAFFAILURE
- 1969Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1968Titan IIIB | KH-8 18USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Titan II GLV | Gemini VIINASASUCCESS
- 1964Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 14USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor Agena D | KH-4 16USAFSUCCESS
- 1961Blue Scout Jr | Blue Scout Jr. O-2USAFSUCCESS
- 1960Scout X-1 | NASA S-56NASAFAILURE
- 1959Little Joe | LJ-2NASASUCCESS
- 1958Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1cCCCPFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Buying through these links doesn't cost you anything extra.
- 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.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
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.