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November 20 in spaceflight

33 orbital launches flew on November 20, the earliest of them in 1959, and 32 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 1 spaceflight and astronomy event on November 20. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 20 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

33MISSIONS

32 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1959, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

1ENTRY

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1998 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 20, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 20

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

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — 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.

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© Robert Fedez — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on November 20

  1. 1998

    The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

    Zarya (ISS module) ↗

Every launch on November 20

33 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Electron | Follow My Speed (BlackSky Gen-3 3)RLSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 7-7SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2021Astra Rocket 3 | STP-27AD2ASSUCCESS
  4. 2021Long March 4B | Gaofen-11-03CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2020Electron | Return to Sender (Rideshare)RLSUCCESS
  6. 2015Long March 3B/E | LaoSat-1CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2014Long March 2D | Yaogan-24CASCSUCCESS
  8. 2013Long March 4C | Yaogan 19CASCSUCCESS
  9. 2013Minotaur I | ORS-3OSCSUCCESS
  10. 2012Proton-M / Briz-M Enhanced | EchoStar XVIILSSUCCESS
  11. 2011Long March 2D | Shiyan Weixing 4 & Chuang Xin 1CCASCSUCCESS
  12. 2010Minotaur IV HAPS | STP S-26OSCSUCCESS
  13. 2009Soyuz-U-PVB | Lotos-S 1VKSSUCCESS
  14. 2004Delta II | SwiftUSAFSUCCESS
  15. 2002Delta IV M+(4,2) | Eutelsat W5BASUCCESS
  16. 2000Kosmos-3M | QuickBird 1NPFAILURE
  17. 1998Proton | ZaryaKhSCSUCCESS
  18. 1994Proton | Uragan 60 to 62KhSCSUCCESS
  19. 1993Ariane 44LP | Solidaridad 1 & Meteosat 6ASASUCCESS
  20. 1992Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 67VKSSUCCESS
  21. 1991Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 61CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1990Ariane 42P | Satcom C1 & GStar 4ASASUCCESS
  23. 1990Molniya 8K78M-PVB | US-K 67CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1987Soyuz-U2 | Progress 33CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1986Molniya-M | US-K 51CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1981Kosmos-3M | Bhaskara 2CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1981Delta 3910/PAM | Satcom 3RUSAFSUCCESS
  28. 1975Delta 2910 | AE-EUSAFSUCCESS
  29. 1974Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 73CCCPSUCCESS
  30. 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 66CCCPSUCCESS
  31. 1971Kosmos-3M | Sfera 7CCCPSUCCESS
  32. 1969Apollo LM | Apollo 12NASASUCCESS
  33. 1959Thor Agena A | Discoverer 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.