Interactive Tables and Charts
Data Infrastructure
Annual launch attempts, 2022, 2023, 2024 projection
The pace is expected to quicken, with a dozen more new launch vehicles preparing for flight.
Lunar soft landing attempts
Unlike the failures that plagued early lunar missions, which included launch failures, missing the Moon, or crashing, recent lunar landings are more often quashed by software errors.
U.S. spaceports hosting successful orbital launches, 2014-2023
Launch services conducted 83 launches from Vandenberg and 72 from Kennedy, while Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island performed 19 launches.
Cape Canaveral customer mission share 2014–2023
Launches from Cape Canaveral were military-focused for the first few years, with civil missions not far behind.
Satellites lost by launch operator country and type, 2003-2023
Despite the rising number of lost payloads, satellite operators are getting better at mitigating the harm done to their mission by a launch failure.
Launch service launches from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg 2014-2023
Launches from the Cape and Vandenberg have increased primarily due to one launch service provider: SpaceX.
Average payload mass 2012-2023
January, February launches by nation, 2024
January, February launches in 2024 put the planet in line for the busiest year in space, averaging a launch to space every 32 hours.
Launch Attempts and Deployed Payloads, 1983-2022
Two items stand out as primary examples of astronomers’ concerns: the SpaceX Starlink constellation due to its number of satellites and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite due to its size — 693 square feet6 — which ranks as the largest commercial communications array in space.
Launch Failure Rate 2019-2023
The frenetic pace of launch in 2023 also brought a higher number of launch failures, with 11 rockets failing to make orbit, of them in spectacular fashion.