Launches
ON RECORD20MISSIONS
18 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1957 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 6 in spaceflight
20 launches flew on December 6, the earliest of them in 1957, and 18 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 6. 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 1882.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 6
1957
The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite failed with an explosion on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
Vanguard TV-3 ↗1957
Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
Project Vanguard ↗2006
NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
NASA ↗
Launches on December 6Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
20 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 8A | SatNet LEO Group 14CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Simorgh | Fakhr-1 & Saman-1ISASUCCESS
- 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-21SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Long March 3B/E | Gaofen 14CASCSUCCESS
- 2019Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-13 (74P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2019Electron | Running Out Of Fingers (Rideshare)RLSUCCESS
- 2015Atlas V 401 | Cygnus CRS Orb-4 (S.S. Deke Slayton II)ULASUCCESS
- 2014Ariane 5 ECA | DirecTV-14 & GSAT-16ASASUCCESS
- 2013Atlas V 501 | NROL-39 (USA-247)ULASUCCESS
- 2009Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-3 (USA-211)ULASUCCESS
- 2000Atlas IIAS | NROL-10LMTSUCCESS
- 1998Pegasus XL | Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)OSCSUCCESS
- 1998Ariane 42L | Satmex 5ASASUCCESS
- 1995Ariane 44L | Telecom 2C & Insat 2CASASUCCESS
- 1980Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 502USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Scout F-1 | DAD-A & BNASAFAILURE
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 27CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Scout X-4 | FR-1CNESSUCCESS
- 1958Juno II | Pioneer 3NASASUCCESS
- 1957Vanguard | VanguardUSNFAILURE
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.
- 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.