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December 4 in spaceflight

29 orbital launches flew on December 4, the earliest of them in 1958, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 5 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 4. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 4 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

29MISSIONS

26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1958, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

5ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 963 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 4, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 4

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.

© ShaRA Team — 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.

© Marcella Giulia Pace — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on December 4

  1. 963

    The lay papal protonotary is elected pope and takes the name Leo VIII, being consecrated on 6 December after ordination.

    Protonotary apostolic ↗

  2. 1639

    Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree made the first successful observation of a transit of Venus (example pictured) from Earth.

    Jeremiah Horrocks ↗

  3. 1943

    World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.

    Kingdom of Yugoslavia ↗

  4. 1965

    Launch of Gemini 7 with crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The Gemini 7 spacecraft was the passive target for the first crewed space rendezvous performed by the crew of Gemini 6A.

    Gemini 7 ↗

  5. 1998

    The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

    Unity (ISS module) ↗

Every launch on December 4

29 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 11-25SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2024Soyuz 2.1b | Kosmos 2580 (Lotos-S1 #9)VKSSUCCESS
  3. 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-70SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2024Kuaizhou 1A | Haishao-1EPSUCCESS
  5. 2023Ceres-1 | Tianyan-16 & Starpool-01AGESUCCESS
  6. 2023Mir (3 stage) | S-STEPADDSUCCESS
  7. 2023Long March 2C | MisrSat-2CASCSUCCESS
  8. 2018Ariane 5 ECA | GSAT-11 & GEO-KOMPSAT-2AASASUCCESS
  9. 1999Pegasus XL HAPS | Orbcomm-D2 - D8OSCSUCCESS
  10. 1998Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-88USASUCCESS
  11. 1996Delta II | Mars PathfinderUSAFSUCCESS
  12. 1990Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 56CCCPSUCCESS
  13. 1990Tsiklon-2 | US-P 36CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1986Soyuz U | Zenit-8 41CCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1984Titan 34D | KH-11 6USAFSUCCESS
  16. 1981Soyuz U | Zenit-6U 51CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1977Soyuz U | Zenit-4MKM 7CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1975Titan IIID | KH-9 11USAFSUCCESS
  19. 1973Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 8CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1971Atlas SLV-3A Agena D | Canyon 4USAFFAILURE
  21. 1969Thorad SLV-2H Agena D | KH-4B 8USAFSUCCESS
  22. 1968Titan IIIB | KH-8 18USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1965Titan II GLV | Gemini VIINASASUCCESS
  24. 1964Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 14USAFSUCCESS
  25. 1962Thor Agena D | KH-4 16USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1961Blue Scout Jr | Blue Scout Jr. O-2USAFSUCCESS
  27. 1960Scout X-1 | NASA S-56NASAFAILURE
  28. 1959Little Joe | LJ-2NASASUCCESS
  29. 1958Vostok-L 8K72 | Luna-1cCCCPFAILURE

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.