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November 27 in spaceflight

23 orbital launches flew on November 27, the earliest of them in 1963, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 27. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 27 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

23MISSIONS

22 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1971 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 27, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 27

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on November 27

  1. 1971

    The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.

    Soviet space program ↗

  2. 1985

    Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches on STS-61-B, with Rodolfo Neri Vela becoming the first Mexican astronaut.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

  4. 2001

    Astronomers announced the detection of sodium in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 209458 b (artist's impression pictured), the first exoplanet atmosphere to be measured.

    Sodium ↗

  5. 2001

    A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

    Hydrogen ↗

Every launch on November 27

23 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-28RFSASUCCESS
  2. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-76SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2024Zhuque-2E | Guangchuan-01 & 02LSSUCCESS
  4. 2022Long March 2D | Yaogan 36 Group 03CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2019Long March 4C | Gaofen-12CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2019PSLV-XL | Cartosat-3 & othersISROSUCCESS
  7. 2012Long March 3B/E | Zhongxing 12 / SupremeSAT-ICASCSUCCESS
  8. 2001Ariane 44LP | DirecTV-4SASASUCCESS
  9. 1997H-II | TRMM & ETS 7JAXASUCCESS
  10. 1992Proton | Gorizont 27KhSCSUCCESS
  11. 1991Kosmos-3M | Parus 74CCCPSUCCESS
  12. 1985Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-61-BLSOCSUCCESS
  13. 1984Tsiklon-3 | Meteor-3 1aCCCPFAILURE
  14. 1980Molniya-M | US-K 18CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1980Soyuz-U | Soyuz T-3CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1979Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 22CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1974Voskhod | Zenit-2M 53CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1973Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 21CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1970Molniya-M | Molniya-1 16CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1965Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 31CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1963Thor SLV-2 Agena D | KH-4 25USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1963Atlas Centaur | AC-2 Instrumentation RingUSAFSUCCESS
  23. 1963Thor Delta C | Explorer 18USAFSUCCESS

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.