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December 10 in spaceflight

26 orbital launches flew on December 10, the earliest of them in 1964, and 26 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 2 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 10. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 10 in 4 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

26MISSIONS

26 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1964, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

2ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1684 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

4IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 10, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 10

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.

© George Chatzifrantzis — 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

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.

© Stephanie Ziyi Ye — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on December 10

  1. 1684

    Edmond Halley presented the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, containing Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, to the Royal Society.

    Edmond Halley ↗

  2. 1684

    Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.

    Isaac Newton ↗

Every launch on December 10

26 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-11SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Kinetica 1 | 9 satellitesCASSUCCESS
  3. 2023Long March 2D | Yaogan 39 Group 05CASCSUCCESS
  4. 2021Long March 4B | Shijian 6 Group 05CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2017Long March 3B/E | Alcomsat-1CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2016Long March 3B | Fengyun-4ACASCSUCCESS
  7. 2014Long March 4C | Yaogan 25A, Yaogan 25B, Yaogan 25CCASCSUCCESS
  8. 2008Proton-M | Ciel 2KhSCSUCCESS
  9. 2007Atlas V 401 | NROL-24 (USA-198)ULASUCCESS
  10. 2006Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-116USASUCCESS
  11. 2003Proton-K/Briz-M | Uragan 83, 84 & Uragan-M 2KhSCSUCCESS
  12. 2001Zenit-2 | Meteor-3M No. 1RFSASUCCESS
  13. 1999Ariane 5 G | XMM-NewtonESASUCCESS
  14. 1998Kosmos-3M | Nadezhda 8NPSUCCESS
  15. 1990Kosmos-3M | Strela-2M 48CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1988Proton | Ekran-M 2CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1987Proton | Raduga 21CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1986Tsiklon-3 | Tselina-R 1CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1980Kosmos-3M | Tsikada 7CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1977Soyuz-U | Soyuz 26CCCPSUCCESS
  21. 1974Titan IIIE | Helios-ALMTSUCCESS
  22. 1971Voskhod | Zenit-4M 28CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1970Voskhod | Zenit-2M 15CCCPSUCCESS
  24. 1968Voskhod | Zenit-2 69CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1965Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 32CCCPSUCCESS
  26. 1964Titan IIIA | Transtage 2USAFSUCCESS

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.