Launches
ON RECORD33MISSIONS
33 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 16 in spaceflight
33 launches flew on December 16, the earliest of them in 1962, and 33 of them succeeded. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
NONE FOUND0ENTRIES
Wikipedia doesn't list any spaceflight or astronomy events on this date.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
Launches on December 16Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
33 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Atlas V 551 | Amazon Leo (LA-04)ULASUCCESS
- 2025Long March 4B | Ziyuan-3-04CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 2D | PIESAT-2 09-12CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 5B/YZ-2 | SatNet LEO Group 01CASCSUCCESS
- 2023Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Arktika-M No.2RFSASUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | O3b mPower 1 & 2SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography)SpXSUCCESS
- 2022Long March 11 | Shiyan 21CASCSUCCESS
- 2019Long March 3B/YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M19 & M20CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Electron | This One's For Pickering (VCLS ELaNa XIX)RLSUCCESS
- 2015PSLV-CA | TeLEOS-1ACLSUCCESS
- 2006Minotaur I | Tacsat 2OSCSUCCESS
- 1994Proton | Altair 13L (Luch 1)KhSCSUCCESS
- 1993Atlas IIAS | Telstar 401USAFSUCCESS
- 1991Ariane 44L | Telecom 2AASASUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 42CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 27CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Yantar-4K1 6CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 31CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Soyuz T-1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Delta 3914 | Anik BUSAFSUCCESS
- 1977Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 16CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 53CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Feng Bao 1 | JSSW 2CASCSUCCESS
- 1973Delta 1900 | AE-CUSAFSUCCESS
- 1972Scout D-1 | Aeros 1NASASUCCESS
- 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 29CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Molniya-M | Molniya-1Yu 15LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1967Voskhod | Zenit-2 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965R-36O 8K69 | OGCh 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Thor Delta E | Pioneer 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Scout X-3 | Explorer 16NASASUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
SPONSORED
Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Buying through these links doesn't cost you anything extra.
- 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.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search. It isn't a pick of one product.
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.