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November 28 in spaceflight

25 orbital launches flew on November 28, the earliest of them in 1963, and 22 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on November 28. Below are the pictures NASA published on November 28 in 2 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

25MISSIONS

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 1958 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

2IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 28, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on November 28

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

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.

© Roberto Marinoni — 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

What happened on November 28

  1. 1958

    First successful flight of SM-65 Atlas; the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family.

    SM-65 Atlas ↗

  3. 1967

    Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a "bit of scruff" in data from a radio telescope, which turned out to be from PSR B1919+21, the first discovered pulsar.

    Jocelyn Bell Burnell ↗

  4. 1967

    The first pulsar (PSR B1919+21, in the constellation of Vulpecula) is discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.

    Pulsar ↗

  5. 1983

    Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-9, the first mission to carry the European Space Agency's Spacelab module.

    Space Shuttle Columbia ↗

Every launch on November 28

25 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 15 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-30SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2022Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Glonass-M No. 61 (Kosmos 2564)VKSSUCCESS
  4. 2018KSLV-2-TLV | Test FlightKARISUCCESS
  5. 2017Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Meteor-M No.2-1 & rideshare payloadsRFSAFAILURE
  6. 2011Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-M (Kosmos 2478)VKSSUCCESS
  7. 2009H-IIA 202 | IGS-Optical 3JAXASUCCESS
  8. 2002Kosmos-3M | AlSat-1NPSUCCESS
  9. 1995Long March 2E | Asiasat 2CASCSUCCESS
  10. 1993Atlas II | DSCS-3 B10USAFSUCCESS
  11. 1992Titan 404A | KH-11 10USAFSUCCESS
  12. 1991Atlas E | DMSP-5D2 F11USAFSUCCESS
  13. 1990Tsiklon-3 | Koltso 3CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1989Molniya-M | Molniya-3 46LCCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1985Kosmos-3M | Parus 51CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1983Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-9ROISUCCESS
  17. 1981Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 225-232CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 5CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1975Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 11CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1973Voskhod | Zenit-4MK 18CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1973Kosmos 11K63 | DS-P1-Yu 67CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1969Proton / UR-500 K/D | Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1CCCPFAILURE
  23. 1966Soyuz | Kosmos 133CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1964Atlas Agena D | Mariner 4USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1963Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 14CCCPFAILURE

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.