Launches
ON RECORD25MISSIONS
22 of them succeeded. The earliest was in 1965 and the latest in 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 28 in spaceflight
25 launches flew on December 28, the earliest of them in 1965, and 22 of them succeeded. Wikipedia lists 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on December 28. 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 1612.
Pictures from this date
NONE0IMAGES
There's no Astronomy Picture of the Day we can show for this date.
What happened on December 28
1612
Galileo Galilei became the first person to observe the planet Neptune (pictured), although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
Galileo Galilei ↗
Launches on December 28Archive read 2026-11-05. Anything after that isn't listed here.
25 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | AIST-2T 01 & 02RFSASUCCESS
- 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 5-1SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Long March 2D | SuperView-1 (Gaojing 1-01 & Gaojing 1-02)CASCPARTIAL
- 2015Long March 3B/E | Gaofen 4CASCSUCCESS
- 2013Soyuz 2.1v/Volga | Aist-1VKOSUCCESS
- 2011Soyuz-2.1a/Fregat | 6 x Globalstar-2SSASUCCESS
- 2005Soyuz-FG | Giove ARFSASUCCESS
- 2003Proton-K/DM-2M | Ekspress AM-22KhSCSUCCESS
- 2001Tsiklon-3 | Strela-3 128 to 130 & Gonets 10 to 12VKSSUCCESS
- 1995Long March 2E | Echostar ICASCSUCCESS
- 1995Molniya-M | IRS-1C & SkipperPRSCSUCCESS
- 1994Proton | Raduga 32KhSCSUCCESS
- 1991Long March 3 | DFH-2A 5CASCPARTIAL
- 1988Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 74CCCPSUCCESS
- 1985Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1983Molniya-M | US-K 31CCCPSUCCESS
- 1982Soyuz U | Yantar-4KS1 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 35CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Proton-K/DM | Gorizont 3CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-4MT 15CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Kosmos-3M | Parus 7CCCPSUCCESS
- 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-3 17LCCCPSUCCESS
- 1972Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 4CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos 65S3 | Strela-2 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1965Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-K-40 1CCCPFAILURE
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.