Launches
ON RECORD22MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 13 in spaceflight
22 launches flew on December 13, the earliest of them in 1962, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 13. 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 1962.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 13
1972
Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
Apollo program ↗
Launches on December 13Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
22 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Kuaizhou 11 | DEAR-5EPSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-2SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Ariane 5 ECA+ | Galaxy 35 & 36, MTG-I1ASASUCCESS
- 2021Long March 3B | Tianlian 2-02CASCSUCCESS
- 2021Proton-M/Briz-M | Ekspress-AMU3 & AMU7KhSCSUCCESS
- 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | Sirius SXM-7SpXSUCCESS
- 2018SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VP-03VGSUCCESS
- 2015Proton-M Briz-M | Garpun No. 12L (Kosmos-2513)KhSCSUCCESS
- 2014Atlas V 541 | NROL-35 (USA-259)ULASUCCESS
- 1985Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 56LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Scout G-1 | ITV 1 & 2USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Titan 34B | Quasar 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Delta 3914 | Satcom 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1974Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Titan IIIC | DSCS-2 3 & 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-I 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Thor Delta E1 | Pioneer 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Transit-O 2 & 5E-5USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Kosmos-2I 63S1 | Omega 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1962Thor Delta B | Relay 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Thor Agena D | Poppy 3A & 3BUSAFSUCCESS
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.
- 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.