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November 23 in spaceflight

22 orbital launches flew on November 23, the earliest of them in 1960, and 20 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 23. Pick another date to see what happened on it.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

22MISSIONS

20 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1960, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1924 onward.

Pictures from this date

NONE

0IMAGES

No Astronomy Picture of the Day is available for this date.

What happened on November 23

  1. 1924

    The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble (pictured) stating that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is in fact another galaxy.

    The New York Times ↗

  2. 1924

    Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times.

    Edwin Hubble ↗

  3. 1972

    The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket.

    N1 (rocket) ↗

  4. 2002

    Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-113 to the International Space Station carrying the Expedition 6 crew and the P1 truss.

    Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗

  5. 2015

    Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.

    Blue Origin ↗

Every launch on November 23

22 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-30SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2023Long March 2D/YZ-3 | 3 x SatNet test satellitesCASCSUCCESS
  3. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Eutelsat 10BSpXSUCCESS
  4. 2020Long March 5 | Chang'e 5CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2019Long March 3B/YZ-1 | Beidou-3 M21 & M22CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2015New Shepard | NS-2BOSUCCESS
  7. 2014Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-15MRFSASUCCESS
  8. 2009Atlas V 431 | Intelsat 14ULASUCCESS
  9. 1999Atlas IIA | UHF F/O F10LMTSUCCESS
  10. 1990Proton | Gorizont 22CCCPSUCCESS
  11. 1990Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 79CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1989Molniya-M | US-K 61CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1989Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-33LSOCSUCCESS
  14. 1988Zenit-2 | Tselina-2 6CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1983Molniya-M | Molniya-1K 59CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1977Delta 2914 | Meteosat 1USAFSUCCESS
  17. 1976Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 1CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1974Delta 2313 | Skynet IIBUSAFSUCCESS
  19. 1972N1 | Soyuz 7K-LOK No.2CCCPFAILURE
  20. 1967Kosmos-3M | Zaliv 1CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1965Molniya 8K78 | Venera-4aCCCPFAILURE
  22. 1960Thor Delta | Tiros 2USAFSUCCESS

FIELD KIT / LIBRARY

SPONSORED

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

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  • 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

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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 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.