Launches
ON RECORD30MISSIONS
27 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1970 · 56 years ago today
Venera 7 transmits from Venus
Venera 7 survived its descent and sent twenty-three minutes of data from the surface of Venus, the first from another planet.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 15 in spaceflight
30 launches flew on December 15, the earliest of them in 1960, and 27 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 15. 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 1965.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 15
1965
Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
Project Gemini ↗1970
The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 touched down on the surface of Venus, making the first successful landing of a spacecraft on another planet.
Venera 7 ↗
Launches on December 15Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
30 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-82SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Long March 5 | Yaogan 41CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Electron | The Moon God Awakens (QPS-SAR-5)RLSUCCESS
- 2021Kuaizhou 1A | GeeSat x2EPFAILURE
- 2020Astra Rocket 3.2 | Flight 2ASFAILURE
- 2020Electron | The Owl's Night Begins (StriX-α)RLSUCCESS
- 2017Falcon 9 Full Thrust | SpX CRS-13SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Pegasus XL | 8 x CYGNSSOASUCCESS
- 2015Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-19MRFSASUCCESS
- 2014Proton-M Briz-M | Yamal-401ILSSUCCESS
- 2010Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-20RFSASUCCESS
- 2009Long March 4C | Yaogan Weixing 8CASCSUCCESS
- 2008Long March 4B | Yaogan Weixing 5CASCSUCCESS
- 1997Soyuz-U-PVB | Yantar-4K2 77RVSN RFSUCCESS
- 1995Atlas IIA | Galaxy 3RLMTSUCCESS
- 1989Proton | Raduga 24CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 20CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Proton-K/D-1 | Vega-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 43CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Atlas SLV-3D Centaur | Intelsat 503USAFSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1977Delta 2914 | SakuraUSAFSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Proton | TKS-VA 1 & 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Voskhod | Zenit-4M 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Thor Delta N | ESSA 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Titan II GLV | Gemini VI-ANASASUCCESS
- 1964Scout X-4 | San Marco 1CNRSUCCESS
- 1960Atlas-Able | P-31USAFFAILURE
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.