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December 19 in spaceflight

36 orbital launches flew on December 19, the earliest of them in 1960, and 34 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 4 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 19. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 19 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

Launches

ON RECORD

36MISSIONS

34 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1960, the most recent 2024.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

4ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1972 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 19, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 19

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.

Long Shadows of the Montes Caucasus

2025

Long Shadows of the Montes Caucasus

When the Moon is at its first quarter phase, the Sun rises along the Montes Caucasus as seen from the lunar surface. The lunar mountain range casts the magnificent, spire-like shadows in this telescopic view from planet Earth, looking along the lunar terminator or the boundary between lunar night and day. Named for Earth's own Caucasus Mountains, the rugged lunar Montes Caucasus peaks, up to 6 kilometers high, are located between the smooth Mare Imbrium to the west and Mare Serenitatis to the east. Still mostly in shadow in this first quarter lunarscape, at the left (west) impact craters reflect the light of the rising Sun along their outer, eastern crater walls.

© When the Moon — used with the credit NASA publishes

Messier 2

2024

Messier 2

After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2.

NASA · public domain

NGC 1499: The California Nebula

2023

NGC 1499: The California Nebula

Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On the featured image, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator

© Steven Powell — used with the credit NASA publishes

The Tadpole Nebula in Gas and Dust

2022

The Tadpole Nebula in Gas and Dust

What's causing the commotion in the Tadpole Nebula? Star formation. Dusty emission in the Tadpole Nebula, IC 410, lies about 12,000 light-years away in the northern constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The cloud of glowing gas is over 100 light-years across, sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from embedded open star cluster NGC 1893. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, bright newly formed cluster stars are seen all around the star-forming nebula. Notable on the lower-right of the featured image are two relatively dense streamers of material trailing away from the nebula's central regions. Potentially sites of ongoing star formation in IC 410, these cosmic tadpole shapes are about 10 light-years long. The image was processed highlighting the emission from sulfur (red), hydrogen (green), and oxygen (blue) gas -- but with the stars digitally removed.

© Craig Stocks (Utah Desert Remote Observatories) — used with the credit NASA publishes

Planetary Alignment over Italy

2021

Planetary Alignment over Italy

It is not a coincidence that planets line up. That's because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic. When viewed from inside that plane -- as Earth dwellers are likely to do -- the planets all appear confined to a single band. It is a coincidence, though, when three of the brightest planets all appear in nearly the same direction. Such a coincidence was captured earlier this month. Featured above (right to left), Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter were all imaged together in a line just after sunset, from the San Fermo Hills, Bergamo, Italy. Joining the alignment are Earth's Moon, and the position of the more distant Uranus. Bands of clouds streak across the sky toward the setting Sun. As Comet Leonard fades, this planetary alignment -- absent the Moon -- should persist for the rest of the month. Discovery + Outreach: Graduate student research position open for APOD

© Antonio Finazzi — used with the credit NASA publishes

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What happened on December 19

  1. 1972

    Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

    Apollo program ↗

  3. 2013

    The European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia was launched with the goal of constructing the largest and most precise star catalogue ever made.

    European Space Agency ↗

Every launch on December 19

36 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2024Ceres-1S | Tianqi 33-36GESUCCESS
  2. 2023New Shepard | NS-24BOSUCCESS
  3. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 6-34SpXSUCCESS
  4. 2021Falcon 9 Block 5 | Türksat 5BSpXSUCCESS
  5. 2020Falcon 9 Block 5 | NROL-108SpXSUCCESS
  6. 2018Soyuz STA/Fregat | CSO-1ASASUCCESS
  7. 2018GSLV Mk II | GSAT-7AISROSUCCESS
  8. 2014Strela | Kondor-EKhSCSUCCESS
  9. 2013Soyuz STB/Fregat-MT | GaiaASASUCCESS
  10. 2012Ariane 5 ECA | Skynet 5D & Mexsat-3ASASUCCESS
  11. 2012Soyuz FG | Soyuz TMA-07MRFSASUCCESS
  12. 2012SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF23VGSUCCESS
  13. 2011Long March 3B/E | NigComSat-1RCASCSUCCESS
  14. 2006Kosmos-3M | SAR-Lupe 1NPSUCCESS
  15. 1998Long March 2C/SD | Iridium 88 & 89CASCSUCCESS
  16. 1991Proton | Raduga 28CCCPSUCCESS
  17. 1985Kosmos-3M | Parus 52CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1984K65M-RB | BOR-4 407CCCPSUCCESS
  19. 1981Soyuz U | Yantar-2K 23CCCPSUCCESS
  20. 1981Atlas E/SVS | Navstar 7USAFFAILURE
  21. 1978Proton-K/DM | Gorizont 1CCCPSUCCESS
  22. 1978Vostok 8A92M | Tselina-D 17CCCPSUCCESS
  23. 1976Titan IIID | KH-11 1USAFSUCCESS
  24. 1975Kosmos-3M | DS-P1-M 7CCCPFAILURE
  25. 1974Delta 2914 | Symphonie 1USAFSUCCESS
  26. 1973Kosmos-3M | Strela-1M 57-64CCCPSUCCESS
  27. 1971Molniya-M | Molniya-1 19CCCPSUCCESS
  28. 1968Kosmos 11K63 | DS-U2-GK 1CCCPSUCCESS
  29. 1968Thor Delta M | INTELSAT III F-2USAFSUCCESS
  30. 1967Kosmos-2I 63S1 | DS-U1-G 2CCCPSUCCESS
  31. 1966Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 44CCCPSUCCESS
  32. 1964Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 15USAFSUCCESS
  33. 1963Scout X-4 | Explorer 19NASASUCCESS
  34. 1963Vostok 8A92 | Zenit-2 15CCCPSUCCESS
  35. 1962Scout X-3 | Transit-5A 1USAFSUCCESS
  36. 1960Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 1ANASASUCCESS

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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