Launches
ON RECORD26MISSIONS
25 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1969 and the latest in 2025.
MARKED ON THIS DATE
2021 · 5 years ago today
Webb launches
The James Webb Space Telescope launched folded inside an Ariane 5 and spent the next month unfolding on the way to L2.
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ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 25 in spaceflight
26 launches flew on December 25, the earliest of them in 1969, and 25 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 25. Pick another date to see what happened on it.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD6ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia for this date, oldest first, starting in 1758.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 25
1758
Based on predictions by Edmond Halley in 1705, Johann Georg Palitzsch observed a comet that was later named Halley's Comet .
Edmond Halley ↗1758
Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.
Halley's Comet ↗1968
Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
Apollo program ↗2003
The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
Beagle 2 ↗2004
The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
Cassini–Huygens ↗
Launches on December 25Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
26 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Long March 8A | SatNet LEO Group 17CASCSUCCESS
- 2025Soyuz 2.1a | Obzor-R No.1RFSASUCCESS
- 2024Soyuz 2.1b | Resurs-P No.5RFSASUCCESS
- 2023Long March 11 | Shiyan 24CCASCSUCCESS
- 2023Kuaizhou 1A | Tianmu-1 11-14EPSUCCESS
- 2021Ariane 5 ECA+ | James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)ASASUCCESS
- 2017Long March 2C | 3 x Yaogan-30CASCSUCCESS
- 2014Soyuz 2-1B | Lotos-S (Kosmos 2502)VKOSUCCESS
- 2013Rokot / Briz-KM | 3 x Strela-3M (Kosmos-2488, Kosmos-2489, Kosmos-2490) & Kosmos-2491VKOSUCCESS
- 2010GSLV | GSAT-5PISROFAILURE
- 2008Proton-M | Uragan-M 18 to 20KhSCSUCCESS
- 2007Proton-M | Uragan-M 12 to 14KhSCSUCCESS
- 2006Proton | Uragan-M 6 to 8KhSCSUCCESS
- 2005Proton | Uragan 87, Uragan-M 4 & 5KhSCSUCCESS
- 2002Proton-K/DM-2M | Uragan 80 to 82KhSCSUCCESS
- 1992Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 68VKSSUCCESS
- 1992Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 12RFSASUCCESS
- 1988Soyuz-U2 | Progress 39CCCPSUCCESS
- 1987Soyuz U | Zenit-8 56CCCPSUCCESS
- 1980Molniya-M | Prognoz-8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1975Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-1 23 (38L)CCCPSUCCESS
- 1973Molniya-M | Molniya-2 8CCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Tsiklon-2 | US-A 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1970Molniya-M | Molniya-1 17CCCPSUCCESS
- 1969Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U1-IK 1CCCPSUCCESS
FIELD KIT / LIBRARY
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Astronomy and spaceflight books for a general reader. No textbooks.
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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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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.