Launches
ON RECORD29MISSIONS
26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1963, the most recent 2025.
ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR
December 5 in spaceflight
29 orbital launches flew on December 5, the earliest of them in 1963, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 5. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 5 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD2ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 2001 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 5, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on December 5
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2025
The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae
Blasting outward from variable star KX Andromedae, these stunning bipolar jets are 19 light-years long. Recently discovered, they are revealed in unprecedented detail in this deep telescopic image centered on KX And and composed from over 692 hours of combined image data. In fact, KX And is spectroscopically found to be an interacting binary star system consisting of a bright, hot B-type star with a swollen cool giant star as its co-orbiting, close companion. The stellar material from the cool giant star is likely being transferred to the hot B-type star through an accretion disk, with spectacular symmetric jets driven outward perpendicular to the disk itself. The known distance to KX And of 2,500 light-years, angular size of the jets, and estimated inclination of the accretion disk lead to the size estimate for each jet of an astonishing 19 light-years. Free APOD Lecture in Phoenix: Wednesday, December 10 at 7 pm
© Tim Schaeffer — used with the credit NASA publishes
2024
Stereo Jupiter near Opposition
Jupiter looks sharp in these two rooftop telescope images. Both were captured last year on November 17 from Singapore, planet Earth, about two weeks after Jupiter's 2023 opposition. Climbing high in midnight skies the giant planet was a mere 33.4 light-minutes from Singapore. That's about 4 astronomical units away. Jupiter's planet girdling dark belts and light zones are visible in remarkable detail, along with the giant world's whitish oval vortices. Its signature Great Red Spot is prominent in the south. Jupiter rotates rapidly on its axis once every 10 hours. So, based on video frames taken only 15 minutes apart, these images form a stereo pair. Look at the center of the pair and cross your eyes until the separate images come together to see the 3D effect. Of course Jupiter is now not far from its 2024 opposition. Planet Earth is set to pass between the Solar System's ruling gas giant and the Sun on December 7.
© Marco Lorenzi — used with the credit NASA publishes
2023
Energetic Particle Strikes the Earth
It was one of the most energetic particles ever known to strike the Earth -- but where did it come from? Dubbed Amaterasu after the Shinto sun goddess, this particle, as do all cosmic rays that strike the Earth's atmosphere, caused an air shower of electrons, protons, and other elementary particles to spray down onto the Earth below. In the featured illustration, a cosmic ray air shower is pictured striking the Telescope Array in Utah, USA, which recorded the Amaterasu event in 2021 May. Cosmic ray air showers are common enough that you likely have been in a particle spray yourself, although you likely wouldn't have noticed. The origin of this energetic particle, likely the nucleus of an atom, remains a mystery in two ways. First, it is not known how any single particle or atomic nucleus can practically acquire so much energy, and second, attempts to trace the particle back to where it originated did not indicate any likely potential source. Open Science: Browse 3,200+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
NASA · public domain
2022
Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster
Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the unaided eye even from the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured 11-hour exposure, taken from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
© Blake Estes (iTelescope Siding Spring Obs.) & Christian Sasse — used with the credit NASA publishes
2021
Total Solar Eclipse Below the Bottom of the World
Yesterday there was a total solar eclipse visible only at the end of the Earth. To capture the unusual phenomenon, airplanes took flight below the clouded seascape of Southern Ocean. The featured image shows one relatively spectacular capture where the bright spot is the outer corona of the Sun and the eclipsing Moon is seen as the dark spot in the center. A wing and engine of the airplane are visible across the left and bottom of the image, while another airplane observing the eclipse is visible on the far left. The dark area of the sky surrounding the eclipsed Sun is called a shadow cone. It is dark because you are looking down a long corridor of air shadowed by the Moon. A careful inspection of the eclipsed Sun will reveal the planet Mercury just to the right. The next total solar eclipse shadow will cross parts of Australia and Indonesia in April of 2023, while the one after that will cross North America in April of 2024. Notable Eclipse Submissions to APOD: Total Solar Eclipse of 2021 December
© Petr Horálek (ESO Photo Ambassador, Inst. of Physics in Opava) ; Acknowledgement: Xavier Jubier — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on December 5
2001
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-108, carrying the Expedition 4 crew to the International Space Station.
Space Shuttle Endeavour ↗
2014
Exploration Flight Test-1, the first flight test of Orion, is launched.
Exploration Flight Test-1 ↗
Every launch on December 5
29 launches
ONLINE
- 2025Kuaizhou 1A | Traffic VDES A & BEPSUCCESS
- 2024Vega-C | Sentinel-1CASASUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Sirius SXM-9SpXSUCCESS
- 2024PSLV-XL | Proba-3ISROSUCCESS
- 2024Long March 6A | SpaceSail Polar Group #3CASCSUCCESS
- 2024Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 9-14SpXSUCCESS
- 2023Smart Dragon 3 | SatNet test satelliteCHNRSUCCESS
- 2021Soyuz STB/Fregat | Galileo L11 (FOC FM23-FM24)ASASUCCESS
- 2019Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpX CRS-19SpXSUCCESS
- 2018Falcon 9 Block 5 | SpX CRS-16SpXSUCCESS
- 2016Vega | Göktürk-1AASASUCCESS
- 2015Soyuz 2.1v/Volga | Kanopus-ST (Kosmos 2511) & KYuA-1 (Kosmos 2512)VKSFAILURE
- 2014Delta IV Heavy | EFT-1ULASUCCESS
- 2010Proton-M Blok-DM-03 | 3 x Glonass-M (Kosmos 2470, Kosmos 2471, Kosmos 2472)KhSCFAILURE
- 2003Strela | GruzomaketKhSCSUCCESS
- 2002Atlas IIA | TDRS 10LMTSUCCESS
- 2001Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-108USASUCCESS
- 2000Start-1 | EROS A1RVSN RFSUCCESS
- 1995Titan 404A | KH-11 11USAFSUCCESS
- 1986Atlas G Centaur | FLTSATCOM F7USAFSUCCESS
- 1980Kosmos-3M | Parus 25CCCPSUCCESS
- 1979Kosmos-3M | Taifun-1B 1CCCPSUCCESS
- 1978Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 161-168CCCPSUCCESS
- 1971Diamant B | PolaireCNESFAILURE
- 1968Thor Delta E1 | HEOS 1USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Titan IIIB | KH-8 10USAFSUCCESS
- 1967Scout B | OV3-6USAFSUCCESS
- 1966Atlas SLV-3 Agena D | KH-7 35USAFSUCCESS
- 1963Thor DM-21 Ablestar | Transit-5BN 2USAFSUCCESS
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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