Launches
ON RECORD30MISSIONS
27 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 11 in spaceflight
30 launches flew on December 11, the earliest of them in 1961, and 27 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on December 11. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD1ENTRY
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1972.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 11
1972
Apollo 17 (Lunar Roving Vehicle pictured), the last Apollo mission, landed on the Moon.
Apollo 17 ↗
Launches on December 11Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
30 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 12 | SatNet LEO Group 16CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-90SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Hakuto-R M1 & Lunar FlashlightSpXSUCCESS
- 2021New Shepard | NS-19BOSUCCESS
- 2020Delta IV Heavy | NROL-44ULASUCCESS
- 2019New Shepard | NS-12BOSUCCESS
- 2019PSLV-QL | RISAT-2BR1 & othersISROSUCCESS
- 2019Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M No. 59 (Kosmos 2544)VKSSUCCESS
- 2015Zenit-3F | Elektro-L No.2RFSASUCCESS
- 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF27VGSUCCESS
- 2012Atlas V 501 | OTV-3 (X-37B) (USA-240)ULASUCCESS
- 2011Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | Luch 5A & Amos-5KhSCSUCCESS
- 2006Proton-M Briz-M | Measat 3KhSCSUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 5 ECA | Hot Bird 7 & StentorASAFAILURE
- 1999VLS-1 | SACI-2AEBFAILURE
- 1998Delta 7425-9.5 | Mars Climate OrbiterUSAFSUCCESS
- 1996Tsiklon-2 | US-PM 8RFSASUCCESS
- 1989Delta 6925 | GPS-2 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1988Ariane 44LP | Skynet 4B & Astra 1AASASUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Atlas F/SVS | Navstar 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Aquacade 3USAFSUCCESS
- 1975Kosmos-3M | DS-U2-IK 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Delta 0900 | Nimbus 5USAFSUCCESS
- 1971Scout B-1 | Ariel 4SERCSUCCESS
- 1970Thor Delta N6 | NOAA 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1969Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 28CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Atlas D | OV1-9 & 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Atlas Centaur | Surveyor Mass ModelUSAFSUCCESS
- 1961Vostok-K | Zenit-2 1CCCPFAILURE
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.
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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.