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2015 – Russia Launch, Payload

Russia remained the world’s leader in number of launches provided during 2015, taking slightly more than 30% of the global orbital launch market for the year. This position was earned even though the nation’s launch rate fell by 19% to 26 launches in 2015, down from 32 launches during both 2013 and 2014. While Russia’s launch rate fell in 2015, Russia’s space launch system reliability fell slightly as well. Nearly 12% of Russia’s 26 launch attempts for the year were partial or total failures.

2015 – Chinese Spaceports – Snapshot

China’s orbital space launch activities are conducted through three spaceports: Xichang, Jiuquan, and Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centers. Nearly 50% of the country’s 2015 space launches originated from Xichang. A fourth launch site, Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, was completed in October 2014 and will be used to launch China’s new Long March 5 space launch vehicle sometime in 2016.

2015 – Russian Spaceports – Snapshot

There are three active or planned orbital space launch sites in Russia: Dombarovskiy, Plesetsk, and Vostochny. But in 2015, the site the Russians launched 69% of their space launch vehicles was from Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Of the 26 Russian launches conducted, 18 originated in Baikonur. The other eight were launched from the Russian spaceports of Plesetsk and Dombarovskiy.