Launches
ON RECORD43MISSIONS
39 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1961 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
1968 · 58 years ago today
Apollo 8 leaves for the Moon
Apollo 8 became the first crewed flight to leave Earth orbit, four months after the decision to send it.
read more2015 · 11 years ago today
The first orbital booster landing
A Falcon 9 first stage returned to Cape Canaveral and landed upright after delivering eleven satellites to orbit.
read more
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 21 in spaceflight
43 launches flew on December 21, the earliest of them in 1961, and 39 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 21. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD4ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1968.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 21
1968
Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a trajectory to the Moon; its crew (pictured) became the first humans to visit another celestial body.
Apollo 8 ↗1968
Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
Apollo program ↗2020
A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.
Great conjunction ↗
Launches on December 21Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
43 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Electron | The Wisdom God Guides (iQPS Launch 6)RLSUCCESS
- 2024Electron | Owl The Way Up (StriX Launch 6)RLSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Bandwagon 2 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2573 (Bars-M No. 5?)VKSSUCCESS
- 2022Vega-C | Pléiades Neo 5 & 6ASAFAILURE
- 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-24SpXSUCCESS
- 2018Long March 11 | Hongyun-1CASCSUCCESS
- 2018Proton-M/Briz-M | Blagovest N13L (Kosmos 2533)KhSCSUCCESS
- 2016Ariane 5 ECA | Star One D1 & JCSAT-15ASASUCCESS
- 2016Long March 2D | Tansat (CarbonSat)CASCSUCCESS
- 2015Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS (62P)RFSASUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-03MRFSASUCCESS
- 2007Ariane 5 GS | RASCOM-QAF 1 & Horizons-2ASASUCCESS
- 2005Ariane 5 GS | INSAT-4A, Meteosat 9ASASUCCESS
- 2005Kosmos-3M | Strela-3M 1NPSUCCESS
- 2005Soyuz U | Progress M-55RFSASUCCESS
- 2004Delta IV Heavy | Demosat and 3CS-1 & 2BAPARTIAL
- 2003Delta II | GPS IIR-10USAFSUCCESS
- 2001Tsiklon-2 | US-PM 11RFSASUCCESS
- 1999Taurus 2110 | Arirang-1 & ACRIMSatOSCSUCCESS
- 1992Long March 2E | Optus B2CASCFAILURE
- 1990Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Molniya-M | US-K 55CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1984Proton-K/D-1 | Vega-2CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Molniya-M | Molniya-3 35LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Atlas E | DMSP-5D2 F6USAFSUCCESS
- 1977Tsiklon-2 | IS-A 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1974Molniya-M | Molniya-2 11CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 19CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Titan 24B | KH-8 37USAFSUCCESS
- 1972Kosmos-3M | Sfera 9CCCPSUCCESS
- 1968Saturn V | Apollo 8NASASUCCESS
- 1966Atlas SLV-3 | PRIME 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-U2-D 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1966Molniya-M | Luna-13CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Titan IIIC | OV2-3USAFSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-P1-Yu 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | Quill 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1964Thor Delta C | Explorer 26USAFSUCCESS
The rest of them3 MORE
- 1963Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4 26USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Thor Delta B | Tiros 8USAFSUCCESS
- 1961Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-1 2RVSN RFFAILURE
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.