Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/December


 * 7 December 1972 – The “Blue Marble” photograph is taken by the Apollo 17 crew
 * 8 December 1992 – Galileo completes the second Earth flyby
 * 14 December 1962 – Mariner 2 becomes the first space probe to perform a flyby of a planet, when it passes within 35,000 kilometers of Venus
 * 17 December 1917 – “2001: A Space Odyssey” science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is born
 * 19 December 2013 – Gaia is launched for the mission to study billions of stars in the Milky Way
 * 21 December 1968 – Apollo 8, is launched with the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return safely to Earth
 * 27 December 1571 – Astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer Johannes Kepler is born