Launches
ON RECORD26MISSIONS
21 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1960 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 22 in spaceflight
26 launches flew on December 22, the earliest of them in 1960, and 21 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on December 22. 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 1942.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 22
Launches on December 22Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
26 launches
ONLINE
- 2025H3-22 | Michibiki 5 (QZS-5)MHIFAILURE
- 2023Firefly Alpha | FLTA004 (Fly the Lightning)FAPARTIAL
- 2021H-IIA 204 | Inmarsat-6 F1MHISUCCESS
- 2020Long March 8 | XJY-7 & othersCASCSUCCESS
- 2016SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity GF02VGSUCCESS
- 2015Falcon 9 Full Thrust | Orbcomm OG2 Mission 2SpXSUCCESS
- 2011Long March 4B | Zi Yuan 1-02CCASCSUCCESS
- 1999Ariane 44L | Galaxy 11ASASUCCESS
- 1998Ariane 42L | PAS 6BASASUCCESS
- 1997Ariane 42L | INTELSAT 804ASASUCCESS
- 1994Titan 402A IUS | DSP 17USAFSUCCESS
- 1993Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 87PRSCSUCCESS
- 1992Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 13VKSSUCCESS
- 1992Soyuz U | Orlets-1 4RFSASUCCESS
- 1990Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 55 to 60CCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Molniya-M | Molniya-3 52LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1988Long March 3 | DFH-2A 3CASCSUCCESS
- 1984Titan 34D Transtage | DSP F12USAFSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Taifun-2 5CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Proton-K/DM | Raduga 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Molniya-M | Prognoz-4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 2CCCPFAILURE
- 1965Scout A | Transit-O 6USAFSUCCESS
- 1962Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1961Atlas LV-3A | Samos 5USAFPARTIAL
- 1960Vostok | Korabl-Sputnik (4)CCCPFAILURE
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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.
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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.
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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.