Launches
ON RECORD26MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1958 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 18 in spaceflight
26 launches flew on December 18, the earliest of them in 1958, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 18. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD5ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1958.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 18
1958
The United States launched SCORE (rocket pictured), the world's first communications satellite.
SCORE (satellite) ↗1966
Epimetheus, one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was mistaken for Janus; it took twelve years to determine that they are two distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
Epimetheus (moon) ↗1973
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
Soyuz programme ↗1999
NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
NASA ↗
Launches on December 18Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
26 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Electron | Don't Be Such A Square (STP-S30)RLSUCCESS
- 2024KAIROS | Flight 2Space OneFAILURE
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-4SpXSUCCESS
- 2020Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 4ASASUCCESS
- 2019Soyuz STB/Fregat | CSG-1, CHEOPS, & othersASASUCCESS
- 2016Atlas V 431 | Echostar 19 (Jupiter-2)ULASUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz STB/Fregat | O3b FM9-FM12ASASUCCESS
- 2014LVM-3 | CARE (Demo Flight)ISROSUCCESS
- 2012Long March 2D | Göktürk-2CASCSUCCESS
- 2009Ariane 5 GS | Helios 2BASASUCCESS
- 2006H-IIA 204 | Kiku-8JAXASUCCESS
- 2004Ariane 5 G+ | Helios 2A, Essaim 1, 2, 3, 4, PARASOL, Nanosat 01ASASUCCESS
- 2003Atlas | UHF F/O F11LMTSUCCESS
- 1999Atlas IIAS | TerraLMTSUCCESS
- 1996Atlas IIA | INMARSAT III F-3LMTSUCCESS
- 1995Soyuz U | Progress M-30RFSASUCCESS
- 1993Ariane 44L | DirecTV 1 & Thaicom 1ASASUCCESS
- 1992Delta II | GPS IIA-8USAFSUCCESS
- 1991Tsiklon-3 | AUOS-Z-AP-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1986Tsiklon-3 | Ionozond-ECCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 25CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Soyuz | Soyuz 13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 38CCCPSUCCESS
- 1963Atlas Agena D | KH-7 4USAFSUCCESS
- 1958Atlas B | SCOREUSASUCCESS
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.