On February 13, 2012, the first Vega lifted off on its maiden flight from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
Photographer Mike Killian captured this picture of the Jan. 19, 2012, Delta 4 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb. 24, 2012, with the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System-1 (MUOS-1) satellite.
A Russian Proton rocket soars into the sky in a successful launch of the new Intelsat 22 communications satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 24, 2012.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV carrying the NROL-25 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office lifts off from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, April 3, 2012.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off with the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency-2 (AEHF-2) satellite from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 2:42 p.m. EDT on May 4, 2012.
The Soyuz rocket with Expedition 33/34 crew members, Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy, Flight Engineer Kevin Ford of NASA, and Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin of ROSCOSMOS onboard the TMA-06M spacecraft launches to the International Space Station on Tuesday, October 23, 2012, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will be on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
The Soyuz TMA-04M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 carrying Expedition 31 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin to the International Space Station.
SpaceX's first space station-bound Dragon spacecraft, flying atop a Falcon 9 rocket, launches behind a high fidelity mockup of the space shuttle, NASA's previous means of delivering cargo to International Space Station. Liftoff occurred on May 22, 2012 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
SpaceX tweeted this photo of the Falcon 9 launch on May 22, 2012. The company wrote: "Incredible shot of Falcon 9 launch (photo credit: James Fink) pic.twitter.com/M97rrNfY."
A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches on the Shenzhou 9 mission, China's first manned space docking flight and first flight of a female astronaut, on June 16, 2012 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launches the classified NROL-38 spy satellite into orbit from Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 20, 2012. Liftoff occurred at 8:28 a.m. EDT. The national security satellite will be used by the National Reconnaissance Office.
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 29, 2012 with a secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch placed the NROL-15 satellite into orbit.
Japan's robotic HTV-3 cargo spaceship launches July 20, 2012 from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The spacecraft is carrying new supplies for the International Space Station.
The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15, 2012.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off with NASA’s twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 30, 2012. Liftoff occurred at 4:05 a.m. EDT.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 2:39 p.m. PDT with the NROL-36 national security payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Launch of the Soyuz-2.1a with Fregat upper stage and MetOp-B satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 17, 2012.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket blasts off from Space Launch Complex-37 on Oct. 4, 2012, at 8:10 a.m. EDT with the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF-3 satellite.
A view looking down at SpaceX's Dragon capsule as it lifts off the pad on Oct. 7, 2012.
A Russian Soyuz lifts off for the third time from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place the second pair of Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana, on Oct. 12, 2012.
Members of the media photograph the Soyuz rocket as it launches with Expedition 33/34 crew members on Oct. 23, 2012.
On October 31, 2012, at 11:41:18 AM Moscow Time, logistics spacecraft Progress M-17M was launched from the Baikonur launch site to the International Space Station.
