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May 25 in spaceflight

28 orbital launches flew on May 25, the earliest of them in 1965, and 24 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 7 spaceflight and astronomy events on May 25. Below are the pictures NASA published on May 25 in 6 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

28MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

7ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from -240 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

6IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 25, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on May 25

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.

© Jean-François Bax — 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 25

  1. -240

    First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

    Apsis ↗

  2. 1961

    In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".

    Joint session of the United States Congress ↗

  3. 1961

    Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress, that the United States "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

    Apollo program ↗

  5. 2008

    NASA's Phoenix lander touches down in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.

    NASA ↗

  6. 2012

    In a test flight, SpaceX's Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.

    SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 ↗

  7. 2012

    The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.

    SpaceX Dragon 1 ↗

Every launch on May 25

28 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2026Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-47SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Electron | Ready, Aim, PREFIRE (PREFIRE 1)RLSUCCESS
  3. 2023SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity 25VGSUCCESS
  4. 2023Nuri | NEXTSat-2 & SNIPEKARISUCCESS
  5. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 5 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2020LauncherOne | Launch DemoVOFAILURE
  7. 2017Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat | EKS-2 (Tundra 2) (Kosmos 2518)VKSSUCCESS
  8. 2017Electron | It's a TestRLFAILURE
  9. 2013Delta IV M+(5,4) | WGS-5 (USA-243)ULASUCCESS
  10. 2011SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF10VGSUCCESS
  11. 2007Long March 2D | Yaogan Weixing 2CASCSUCCESS
  12. 2004Soyuz U | Progress M-49RFSASUCCESS
  13. 1996Proton | Gorizont 32KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 1994Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-D 69VKSFAILURE
  15. 1989Soyuz-U-PVB | Resurs-F 1CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1984Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 7CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1982Soyuz U | Resurs-F1 17F41 17LCCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1979Soyuz U | Zenit-2M/NKh 2CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 89CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1977Kosmos-3M | Sfera 16CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-2M 38CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1973Saturn IB | Skylab 2NASASUCCESS
  23. 1973Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 12CCCPFAILURE
  24. 1972Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 17USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 35CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1966Thor Delta C1 | Explorer 32USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1965Voskhod | Zenit-4 7CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1965Saturn I | Pegasus 2NASASUCCESS

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.