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April 12 in spaceflight

18 orbital launches flew on April 12, the earliest of them in 1961, and 16 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on April 12. Below are the pictures NASA published on April 12 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

18MISSIONS

16 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1961, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1961 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for April 12, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on April 12

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

NASA Science

2026

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2025

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Jordi Coy — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2024

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Daniel Korona — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2023

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

© Howard Trottier — used with the credit NASA publishes

NASA Science

2022

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

NASA Science

2021

NASA Science

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

NASA · public domain

What happened on April 12

  1. 1961

    Aboard Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin performed the first human spaceflight, completing one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes.

    Vostok 1 ↗

  2. 1961

    Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first crewed orbital flight, Vostok 1.

    Space Race ↗

  3. 1981

    The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.

    Space Shuttle ↗

Every launch on April 12

18 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-192SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2017Long March 3B | Shijian-13/Chinasat-16CASCSUCCESS
  3. 2013SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise CF01VGSUCCESS
  4. 2012Unha-3 | Kwangmyongsong-3KCSTFAILURE
  5. 2006Zenit | JCSAT 5ASLSUCCESS
  6. 2005Long March 3B | Apstar 6CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2003Atlas | Asiasat 4LMTSUCCESS
  8. 1999Atlas IIAS | Eutelsat W3LMTSUCCESS
  9. 1985Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-51-DLSOCSUCCESS
  10. 1983Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 31CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1981Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-1NASASUCCESS
  12. 1980Molniya-M | US-K 14CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1979Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 43CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 23CCCPFAILURE
  15. 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 61CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1967Voskhod | Zenit-4 28CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1964Sputnik 11A59 | Polyot-2CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1961Vostok-K | Vostok 1CCCPSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

General-audience astronomy and spaceflight — none of it a textbook.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Links here cost you nothing extra.

  • LISTING

    Cosmos — Carl Sagan

    Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan

    The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.

    VIEW

  • LISTING

    Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

    Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.

    VIEW

BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.

LINKS AMAZON.COM

Sources and licences

Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.

Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.