Skip to content
DELTA-V

MARKED ON THIS DATE

ARCHIVE // DAY OF YEAR

December 14 in spaceflight

30 orbital launches flew on December 14, the earliest of them in 1962, and 28 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 14. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 14 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

30MISSIONS

28 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1962, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

6ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1903 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 14, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 14

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.

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.

NASA · public domain

What happened on December 14

  1. 1903

    The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

    Wright brothers ↗

  2. 1940

    Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.

    Plutonium ↗

  3. 1962

    NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

    NASA ↗

  4. 1972

    Upon completing the third extra-vehicular activity of Apollo 17, American astronaut Gene Cernan became the last person to date to walk on the Moon.

    Extravehicular activity ↗

  5. 1972

    Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the most recent person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.

    Apollo program ↗

Every launch on December 14

30 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-12SpXSUCCESS
  2. 2025Electron | Raise and Shine (RAISE-4)RLSUCCESS
  3. 2024HASTE | StonehengeRLSUCCESS
  4. 2023Long March 2F/G | Chinese Reusable Space VehicleCASCSUCCESS
  5. 2022Long March 2D | Yaogan 36 Group 04CASCSUCCESS
  6. 2022Zhuque-2 | Maiden FlightLSFAILURE
  7. 2020Angara A5/Briz-M | Dummy payloadKhSCSUCCESS
  8. 2009Delta II 7320-10C | WISEULASUCCESS
  9. 2009Proton-M | Uragan-M 21 to 23KhSCSUCCESS
  10. 2007Soyuz-FG | Radarsat-2RFSASUCCESS
  11. 2006Delta II 7920-10 | NROL-21ULASUCCESS
  12. 2002H-IIA 202 | Midori-2JAXASUCCESS
  13. 1995Proton | Uragan 69 to 71KhSCSUCCESS
  14. 1994Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 88PRSCSUCCESS
  15. 1987Soyuz U | Yantar-4K2 35CCCPSUCCESS
  16. 1984Molniya-M | Molniya-1T 63CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1983Soyuz U | Bion 6CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1982Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 9CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1978Soyuz U | Zenit-2M 93CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1978Titan IIIC | DSCS-2 11 & 12USAFSUCCESS
  21. 1977Vostok 8A92M | Meteor-2 3CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1975Titan IIIC | DSP 5USAFSUCCESS
  23. 1972Apollo LM | Apollo 17NASASUCCESS
  24. 1972Voskhod | Zenit-4M 44CCCPSUCCESS
  25. 1971Thorad SLV-2G Agena D | Poppy 9A,B,C,DUSAFSUCCESS
  26. 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-I 3CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1966Thor Delta G | Biosat 1USAFSUCCESS
  28. 1966Titan IIIB | KH-8 3USAFSUCCESS
  29. 1966Soyuz | Soyuz 7K-OK No.1CCCPFAILURE
  30. 1962Thor Agena D | KH-4 17USAFSUCCESS

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.