24 launches in December 2021 — sortable by date with provider, vehicle, pad, and outcome.
Updated
| Date (UTC) | Mission | Provider | Vehicle | Status | Pad | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 02, 23:12 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-3 | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Space Launch Complex 40 | — |
| Dec 05, 00:19 UTC | Soyuz STB/Fregat | Galileo L11 (FOC FM23-FM24) | Arianespace | Soyuz STB Fregat | Success | Soyuz Launch Complex | — |
| Dec 07, 04:12 UTC | Ceres-1 | Golden Bauhinia 1-03 & others | Galactic Energy | Ceres-1 | Success | Launch Area 95A | — |
| Dec 07, 10:19 UTC | Atlas V 551 | STP-3 | United Launch Alliance | Atlas V 551 | Success | Space Launch Complex 41 | — |
| Dec 08, 07:38 UTC | Soyuz 2.1a | Soyuz MS-20 | Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) | Soyuz 2.1a | Success | 31/6 | — |
| Dec 09, 00:02 UTC | Electron | A Data With Destiny (BlackSky 14-15) | Rocket Lab | Electron | Success | Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1A | — |
| Dec 09, 06:00 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Launch Complex 39A | — |
| Dec 10, 00:11 UTC | Long March 4B | Shijian 6 Group 05 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 4B | Success | Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) | — |
| Dec 11, 15:00 UTC | New Shepard | NS-19 | Blue Origin | New Shepard | Success | West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch | — |
| Dec 13, 12:07 UTC | Proton-M/Briz-M | Ekspress-AMU3 & AMU7 | Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center | Proton-M Briz-M | Success | 200/39 (200L) | — |
| Dec 13, 16:09 UTC | Long March 3B | Tianlian 2-02 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 3B/E | Success | Launch Complex 3 (LC-3/LA-1) | — |
| Dec 15, 02:00 UTC | Kuaizhou 1A | GeeSat x2 | ExPace | Kuaizhou 1A | Failure | Launch Area 95A | — |
| Dec 18, 12:41 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 4-4 | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Space Launch Complex 4E | — |
| Dec 19, 03:58 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Türksat 5B | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Space Launch Complex 40 | — |
| Dec 21, 10:07 UTC | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-24 | SpaceX | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Success | Launch Complex 39A | — |
| Dec 22, 15:32 UTC | H-IIA 204 | Inmarsat-6 F1 | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | H-IIA 204 | Success | Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1 | — |
| Dec 23, 10:12 UTC | Long March 7A | Shiyan 12-01 & 02 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 7A | Success | 201 | — |
| Dec 25, 12:20 UTC | Ariane 5 ECA+ | James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) | Arianespace | Ariane 5 ECA+ | Success | Ariane Launch Area 3 | — |
| Dec 26, 03:11 UTC | Long March 4C | Ziyuan 1-02E & CAS-9 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 4C | Success | Launch Complex 9 | — |
| Dec 27, 13:10 UTC | Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | OneWeb 12 | Arianespace | Soyuz 2.1b Fregat-M | Success | 31/6 | — |
| Dec 27, 19:00 UTC | Angara A5/Blok DM-03 | Dummy payload | Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center | Angara A5/Blok DM-03 | Failure | 35/1 | — |
| Dec 29, 11:13 UTC | Long March 2D | Tianhui 4 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 2D | Success | Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) | — |
| Dec 29, 16:43 UTC | Long March 3B | TJSW-9 | China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation | Long March 3B/E | Success | Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) | — |
| Dec 30, 03:30 UTC | Simorgh | 3 unknown payloads | Iranian Space Agency | Simorgh | Failure | Imam Khomeini Spaceport | — |
A batch of 48 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system - as well as 2 BlackSky Earth observation satellites as rideshare payloads.
Two satellites for Europe's Galileo navigation system. Galileo provides Europe with an alternative to the American GPS and Russian GLONASS constellations, but will be interoperable with both systems.
This mission carried five commercial small satellites into orbit. These include: a remote sensing satellite Tianjin University-1, two remote sensing satellites for Golden Bauhinia 1 (also known as Jinzijing 1) constellation; and experimental satellites Lize-1 and Baoyun.
Rideshare mission with the STPSat-6 satellite and six secondary payloads for the US Air Force. STPSat-6 carries the NNSA's Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System-3 (SABRS-3) payload and NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) experiment.
Soyuz MS-20 will carry Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Misurkin as well as two tourists, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano, to the International Space Station.
Payload consists of two BlackSky Gen-2 high-resolution multi-spectral Earth observation satellites.
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a space observatory tasked with measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays. This data will help to learn more about objects that emit these X-rays, such as black holes and neutron stars.
The SJ 6 (Shi Jian 6) series consisted of pairs of technology satellites, which were reported to be used to probe the space environment, radiation and its effects, record space physical environment parameters, and conduct other related space experiments.
NS-19 is the third crewed New Shepard flight, carrying two honorary guests and four paying customers.
The Ekspress-AMU 3 and Ekspress-AMU 7 are two communications satellite for russian domestic communication services. While the spacecraft themselves are built by russian RSCC (Kosmicheskiya Svyaz), the communication payloads are built by Thales Alenia Space. Both satellites are based on the Ekspress-1000 bus and feature 16 Ku-, 1 L- and 20 C-band transponders. They will be located at 96.5° and 145° East respectively.
Tianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications satellite series.
Commercial navigation satellites for automobile navigation.
A batch of 52 satellites for Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Türksat 5B is a geostationary communications satellite. It is tasked with providing broadband telecommunication services to customers across Turkey, the Middle East and large regions of Africa.
24th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. Cargo Dragon 2 brings supplies and payloads, including critical materials to directly support science and research investigations that occur onboard the orbiting laboratory.
Inmarsat-6 is the sixth generation of satellites for the London-based global mobile satellite communications operator Inmarsat. It consists of a dual mission to augment both L-band and Ka-band Global Xpress services. Airbus Defence and Space has been awarded a contract by Inmarsat to design and develop the first two Inmarsat-6 (I-6) mobile communications satellites, creating the most versatile mobile services satellites in its fleet. The two I-6 satellites are based on Airbus Defence and Space's Eurostar platform in its E3000e variant, which exclusively uses electric propulsion for orbit raising. The satellites take advantage of the reduction in mass that this electric propulsion technology enables for a dual payload mission, with an exceptionally large next generation digitally processed payload. I-6 F1 and F2 both carry a large 9 m aperture L-band antenna and nine multibeam Ka-band antennas, and feature a high level of flexibility and connectivity. A new generation modular digital processor provides full routing flexibility over up to 8000 channels and dynamic power allocation to over 200 spot beams in L-band. Ka-band spot beams are steerable over the full Earth disk, with flexible channel to beam allocation.
Chinese experimental satellites. Details TBD.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a space telescope developed by NASA, ESA and CSA to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship astrophysics mission. Its primary mirror, the Optical Telescope Element, is composed of 18 hexagonal mirror segments which combine to create a 6.5 m diameter mirror, considerably larger than Hubble's 2.4 m mirror. This will allow JWST to provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies.
ZY-1 02E is a Chinese Earth observation satellite. The primary objective is to acquire high-resolution (5 meter) panchromatic and multispectral imagery for land resource surveys, disaster monitoring, forestry and ecological monitoring.
A batch of 36 satellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which is intended to provide global Internet broadband service for individual consumers. The constellation is planned to have around 648 microsatellites (of which 60 are spares), around 150 kg each, operating in Ku-band from low Earth orbit.
This is the third test flight of Angara A5 launch vehicle and its first flight with Persey upper stage. Since it's a test flight, the rocket carries a mass simulator payload.
Chinese cartography satellite, details TBD.
Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.
Three unknown research payloads are reported to have been sent into space, according to the Iranian Ministry of Defense. However, no new objects are being tracked in the orbit after this launch attempt so it is considered a failure despite Iran's reports of success.