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December 2 in spaceflight

26 orbital launches flew on December 2, the earliest of them in 1970, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 2. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 2 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1970, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1988 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 2, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 2

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.

NASA · public domain

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.

© TWAN — 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

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.

© Dietmar Hager — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on December 2

  1. 1988

    Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-27, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense.

    Space Shuttle Atlantis ↗

  4. 1993

    Space Shuttle program: STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Space Shuttle program ↗

Every launch on December 2

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-95SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-10SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-3SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2020Soyuz STA/Fregat | Falcon Eye 2ASASUCCESS
  5. 2017Soyuz-2.1b | Lotos-S1 (Kosmos-2524)VKSSUCCESS
  6. 2012Soyuz STA/Fregat | Pléiades-HR 1BASASUCCESS
  7. 2008Molniya-M | US-K 85PRSCSUCCESS
  8. 2003Atlas IIAS | NROL-18LMTSUCCESS
  9. 1997Proton-K/DM-2M | Astra 1GKhSCSUCCESS
  10. 1997Ariane 44P | JCSAT 1B & Equator-SASASUCCESS
  11. 1995Atlas IIAS | SOHOLMTSUCCESS
  12. 1993Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-61LSOCSUCCESS
  13. 1992Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-53LSOCSUCCESS
  14. 1992Molniya 8K78M-PVB | Molniya-3 56LPRSCSUCCESS
  15. 1990Soyuz-U2 | Soyuz TM-11CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1990Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-35LSOCSUCCESS
  17. 1988Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-27LSOCSUCCESS
  18. 1986Tsiklon-3 | Geo-IK 8CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1976Molniya-M | Molniya-2 16CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1976Kosmos-3M | Tselina-O 33CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1974Soyuz-U | Soyuz 16CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1972Molniya-M | Molniya-1 22CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1971Kosmos-3M | DS-U2-MTCCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1971Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-IK 2CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1970Proton | L1E 2KCCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1970Kosmos-3M | Ionosfernaya Stantsiya 2CCCPSUCCESS

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.