Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
21 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2024.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 12 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on December 12, the earliest of them in 1961, and 21 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 12. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 2012.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 12
2012
North Korea made its first successful satellite launch, as Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 reached orbit.
Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 ↗
Launches on December 12Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2024Long March 2D/YZ-3 | High Speed Laser Diamond Constellation Test SystemCASCSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 4C | Shiyan 20A & 20BCASCSUCCESS
- 2020SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VF-02VGPARTIAL
- 2017Ariane 5 ES | Galileo L9 (FOC FM15-FM18)ASASUCCESS
- 2017New Shepard | NS-7BOSUCCESS
- 2012Unha-3 | Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2KCSTSUCCESS
- 2011H-IIA 202 | IGS Radar 3MHISUCCESS
- 1999Titan II SLV | DMSP F-15USAFSUCCESS
- 1987Tsiklon-2 | US-A 31CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Molniya-M | US-K 52CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 52CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Atlas E | NOAA 9USAFSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 82CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Tsiklon-2 | US-A 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Molniya-M | Molniya-2 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Diamant B | PéoleCNESSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Scout B | UhuruNASASUCCESS
- 1968Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | KH-4A 49USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-MP 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Thor DM-21 Agena-B | Discoverer 36 & OSCAR 1USAFSUCCESS
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.