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December 24 in spaceflight

18 orbital launches flew on December 24, the earliest of them in 1965, and 15 reached orbit. Wikipedia records 3 spaceflight and astronomy events on December 24. Below are the pictures NASA published on December 24 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.

DATE

Launches

ON RECORD

18MISSIONS

15 of them reached orbit. The earliest was 1965, the most recent 2025.

Recorded events

IN THE RECORD

3ENTRIES

Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from 1968 onward.

Pictures from this date

PUBLISHED

5IMAGES

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 24, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.

Published on December 24

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.

© Robert Nemiroff — used with the credit NASA publishes

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.

© Michael Sherick — used with the credit NASA publishes

What happened on December 24

  1. 1968

    Piloted by Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 became the first human spaceflight to reach and orbit the Moon (Earthrise pictured).

    Jim Lovell ↗

  2. 1968

    Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits, took the Earthrise photograph, broadcast live TV pictures, and read the first ten verses of Genesis.

    Apollo program ↗

  3. 1979

    The first Ariane 1 rocket is launched from ELA-1 at the Guiana Space Centre.

    Ariane 1 ↗

Every launch on December 24

18 launches

ONLINE
  1. 2025LVM-3 | BlueBird 6 (Block 2 #1)ISROSUCCESS
  2. 2023Falcon 9 Block 5 | SARah 2 & 3SpXSUCCESS
  3. 2019Proton-M/Blok DM-03 | Elektro-L No.3KhSCSUCCESS
  4. 2018Long March 3C | TJS-3 (TJSW-3)CASCSUCCESS
  5. 2015Proton-M Briz-M | Ekspress AMU1 / (EUTELSAT 36C)KhSCSUCCESS
  6. 2006Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat | Meridian No. 11LVKSSUCCESS
  7. 2004Tsiklon-3 | Sich-1MVKSFAILURE
  8. 2002Molniya-M | US-K 82PRSCSUCCESS
  9. 1998Kosmos-3M | Parus 90NPSUCCESS
  10. 1997Proton-K/DM-2M | Asiasat 3KhSCFAILURE
  11. 1997Start-1 | EarlyBirdRVSN RFSUCCESS
  12. 1996Soyuz U | Bion 11VKSSUCCESS
  13. 1985Proton | Uragan 12 & 13CCCPSUCCESS
  14. 1985Molniya-M | Molniya-3 40LCCCPSUCCESS
  15. 1982Proton-K/DM | Raduga 22LCCCPFAILURE
  16. 1979Ariane 1 | CAT 1ESASUCCESS
  17. 1974Tsiklon-2 | US-P 1CCCPSUCCESS
  18. 1965Thor SLV-2A Agena D | KH-4A 28USAFSUCCESS

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.