Skip to content
DELTA-V

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

May 12 in spaceflight

15 orbital launches flew on May 12, the earliest of them in 1965, and 15 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 12. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 12 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

15MISSIONS

15 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2026.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1809 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

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

Published on May 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.

NASA · public domain

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© Petr Horalek — 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 May 12

  2. 1846

    The Donner Party, an American pioneer group which became known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevada, left Independence, Missouri, for California.

    Donner Party ↗

  3. 1846

    The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.

    Donner Party ↗

  4. 1942

    World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.

    World War II ↗

Every launch on May 12

15 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #8CASCSUCCESS
  2. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-172SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2025Long March 3C/E | TJSW-19CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2020Kuaizhou 1A | Xingyun-2 01, 02EPSUCCESS
  5. 2007Soyuz U | Progress M-60RFSASUCCESS
  6. 1996Titan 403A | SLDCOM 4USAFSUCCESS
  7. 1993Ariane 42L | Astra 1C & ArseneASASUCCESS
  8. 1988Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 38CCCPSUCCESS
  9. 1978Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1 9CCCPSUCCESS
  10. 1978Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 15CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1977Titan IIIC | DSCS-2 7 & 8USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-3 16LCCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1970Voskhod | Zenit-2 81CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1967Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 49CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1965Blue Scout Jr | OAR 22-8USAFSUCCESS

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.