Skip to content
DELTA-V

MARKED ON THIS DATE

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

November 26 in spaceflight

20 orbital launches flew on November 26, the earliest of them in 1959, and 19 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 26. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 26 in 3 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

20MISSIONS

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

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1944 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

3IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 26, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 26

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

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.

© Laurie Hatch — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on November 26

  1. 1944

    World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop in New Cross, London, killing 168 people.

    V-2 rocket ↗

  2. 1944

    World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.

    Nazi Germany ↗

  3. 1965

    France launches Astérix, becoming the third nation to put an object in orbit using its own booster.

    Astérix (satellite) ↗

  4. 2011

    NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory mission from Cape Canaveral, carrying the Curiosity rover on board.

    NASA ↗

Every launch on November 26

20 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Nuri | CAS500-3KARISUCCESS
  2. 2022Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-26SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2022PSLV-XL | EOS-6 (Oceansat-3) & rideshareISROSUCCESS
  4. 2021Long March 3B | ChinaSat 1DCASCSUCCESS
  5. 2019Ariane 5 ECA | TIBA-1 & Inmarsat-5 F5 (Global Xpress-5)ASASUCCESS
  6. 2015Long March 4C | Yaogan-29CASCSUCCESS
  7. 2011Atlas V 541 | MSL (Curiosity)ULASUCCESS
  8. 2010Ariane 5 ECA | Intelsat 17 & HYLAS 1ASASUCCESS
  9. 2008Soyuz U | Progress M-01MRFSASUCCESS
  10. 2001Soyuz-FG | Progress M1-7RFSASUCCESS
  11. 1990Delta II | GPS IIA-1USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1989Proton | Kvant-2CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1988Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-7CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1987Proton | Luch #2CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1982Proton-K/DM | Raduga 11CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1976Tsiklon-2 | US-P 4CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1975Long March 2 | FSW-0 1CASCSUCCESS
  18. 1965Diamant A | AsterixCNESSUCCESS
  19. 1965Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-M 1CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1959Atlas-Able | P-3USAFFAILURE

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.