Launches
ON RECORD30MISSIONS
29 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1962 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 17 in spaceflight
30 launches flew on December 17, the earliest of them in 1962, and 29 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on December 17. 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 1957.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 17
1957
The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
SM-65 Atlas ↗
Launches on December 17Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
30 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-13SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-99SpXSUCCESS
- 2025Ariane 62 | Galileo L14 (FOC FM33 & FM34)ASASUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | O3b mPower 7 & 8SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-149SpXSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | GPS III SV07 (RRT-1)SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Hyperbola-1 | DEAR-1i-SpaceSUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-37SpXSUCCESS
- 2020PSLV-XL | CMS-01 (GSAT-12R)ISROSUCCESS
- 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | JCSAT-18/KACIFIC-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2017Soyuz-FG | Soyuz MS-07RFSASUCCESS
- 2015Soyuz STB/Fregat | Galileo L6 (FOC FM08-FM09)ASASUCCESS
- 2015Long March 2D | DAMPE ( Wukong/Monkey King )CASCSUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz STA/Fregat | Pléiades-HR 1A, FASat-Charlie (SSOT), 4 x ELISAASASUCCESS
- 2010Long March 3A | Compass-IGSO-2 (Compass-I2)CASCSUCCESS
- 2004Atlas V 521 | AMC 16LMTSUCCESS
- 2002Ariane 44L | NSS 6ASASUCCESS
- 1992Proton | US-KMO 2KhSCSUCCESS
- 1991Soyuz U | Yantar-1KFT 14CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Kosmos-3M | Parus 57CCCPSUCCESS
- 1981Kosmos-3M | Radio Sputnik 3 to 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-4MK 71CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Molniya-M | Molniya-2 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 20 (32L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Soyuz 11A511M | Zenit-4MT 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 49CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1962Atlas Agena B | Midas 6USAFFAILURE
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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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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.