2024 in spaceflight

2024 in spaceflight

Boeing Starliner SpaceX's Starship booster return during test flight 5 Europa Clipper Chang'e 6
Orbital launches
First	1 January
Last	11 November
Total	212
Successes	206
Failures	4
Partial failures	2
Catalogued	122
National firsts
Satellite	Senegal
Space traveller	Belarus Turkey
Rockets
Maiden flights	Angara A5 / Orion Ariane 62 Gravity-1 KAIROS Long March 6C New-type satellite carrier rocket Vulcan Centaur VC2S
Retirements	Delta IV Heavy Vega
Crewed flights
Orbital	9
Orbital travellers	28
Suborbital	4
Suborbital travellers	24
Total travellers	52

2024 in spaceflight

Timeline of spaceflight

So far, the year saw the successful first launch of Vulcan Centaur, Gravity-1, Ariane 6 (partially successful), and notably more developmental launches of SpaceX's Starship. Additionally, the final launch of a Delta family rocket occurred in April with a Delta IV Heavy. In May, China launched the Chang'e 6, the first sample return from the far side of the Moon. The Polaris Dawn mission conducted the first ever commercial spacewalk in September.

In terms of other national-level scientific space missions, NASA's Europa Clipper probe, and ESA's Hera probes launched in October 2024. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter ended operation in January due to damages to rotor blades after its 72nd flight. This year is also expected to see many lunar landing attempts. JAXA's SLIM and Intuitive Machines' IM-1 have successfully survived soft-landings on the Moon but were tipped over during final moments of descent.

Two crewed space stations, the International Space Station (ISS) and Tiangong, are in operation in 2024. In terms of crewed missions, the ISS will be visited by Expedition 70, 71, and 72, while Shenzhou 18 and 19 will visit Tiangong. The ISS also hosted the private crew of Axiom Mission 3.

This year saw Alper Gezeravcı become the first Turkish astronaut, as a crew member on the Axiom Mission 3. Belarus also had its first citizen reach space, when cosmonaut Maryna Vasileuskaya launched on Soyuz MS-25 (not counting Pyotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalyonok, and Oleg Novitsky who were Soviet or Russian citizens of Belarusian origin when they traveled to space). In addition, British citizen Nicolina Elrick became the first ethnic Singaporean to reach space when Blue Origin NS-26 soared past the Kármán line on 2024 August 29th.

Overview

Astronomy and astrophysics

On New Year's Day at 3:40 UTC marking the first launch of the new year, ISRO launched their XPoSat for studying X-ray polarization. It will serve as a complement to the present IXPE probe of NASA. Later the ISRO's Aditya-L1 spacecraft launched 5 months previously was inserted into a halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L1 point on 6 January. It will study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms, and their impact on the environment around Earth.

Einstein Probe, X-ray space telescope mission by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in partnership with ESA and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics, was launched on 9 January 2024.

In April 2024, NASA began, under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to create a standard for time on the Moon, it is called Coordinated Lunar Time and is expected to be completed by 2026.

The Space Variable Objects Monitor is a small X-ray telescope satellite for studying the explosions of massive stars by analysing the resulting gamma-ray bursts, developed by China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the French Space Agency (CNES), launched on 22 June 2024 (07:00:00 UTC).

European Space Agency will launch their PROBA-3 dual satellites for solar coronagraphy.

Exploration of the Solar System

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity flew its 72nd and last flight on 18 January. Because all four of its rotor blades were damaged, NASA announced the end of mission for Ingenuity on 25 January.

On 7 October, the Hera spacecraft was launched successfully. It will arrive at the asteroid Didymos in 2026 after Mars flyby, where it will study the effects of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

NASA launched the Europa Clipper on 14 October, which will study the Jovian moon Europa while in orbit around Jupiter.

Lunar exploration

Peregrine

Peregrine lunar lander was successfully launched on 8 January, but after the launch a propellant leak was detected that precluded any attempt to perform a lunar landing. In the end, the Peregrine spacecraft never left the (highly elliptical) Earth orbit it was injected into by the carrier rocket, and the mission ended ten days later (after one orbit) on 18 January when the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere (under control of the mission team) and was destroyed.

SLIM

SLIM achieved the first-ever lunar soft landing for a Japanese spacecraft. It landed on 19 January 2024 at 15:20 UTC, making Japan the 5th country to soft land on the Moon. Although it landed successfully, its in wrong attitude, because the solar panels are oriented westwards facing opposite the Sun at the start of lunar day, thereby failing to generate enough power. The lander operated on an internal battery power, which was fully drained that day. The mission's operators hope that the lander will wake up after a few days when sunlight should hit the solar panels. SLIM showed perseverance and survived another lunar night waking up on 28 March 2024.

Irrespective of this solar array issue on lander, the two LEV 1 and 2 rovers, deployed during hovering just before final landing are working as expected and LEV-1 communicating independently to the ground stations. LEV-1 conducted seven hops over 107 minutes on lunar surface. Images taken by LEV-2 show the wrong attitude landing with loss of an engine nozzle during descent and even possible sustained damage to lander's Earth bound antenna, that is not pointed towards Earth. Irrespective of wrong attitude and loss of communication with the lander, the mission is already fully successful after confirmation of its primary goal landing within 100 m (330 ft) of its landing spot was already achieved.

On 29 January, the lander resumed operations after being shut down for a week. JAXA said it re-established contact with the lander and its solar cells were working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight. After that, SLIM was put in sleep mode for impending harsh lunar night. SLIM was expected to operate only for one lunar daylight period, or 14 Earth days, and the on-board electronics were not designed to withstand the −120 °C (−184 °F) nighttime temperatures on the Moon. On 25 February 2024, JAXA sent wake-up calls and found SLIM had successfully survived another lunar night on the lunar surface while maintaining communication capabilities. Since it was midday of the lunar day on the moon on 25 February 2024, the temperature of the communications payload was extremely high, so communication was terminated after only a short period of time. JAXA is now preparing for resumed operations, once the temperature has fallen sufficiently. This feat of surviving lunar night without a radioisotope heater unit was only previously achieved by some landers in the Surveyor program.

On 27 March 2024, SLIM survived its second lunar night and woke up sending more images back to Earth, showing "perseverance." Jaxa said "According to the acquired data, some temperature sensors and unused battery cells are starting to malfunction, but the majority of functions that survived the first lunar night was maintained even after the second lunar night."

On 24 April 2024, it survived its third lunar night and woke up sending more images back to Earth.

Nova-C

IM-1 Nova-C Odysseus launched on 15 February 2024 towards the Moon via Falcon 9 on a direct intercept trajectory and later landed in the south polar region of the Moon on 22 February 2024 and became the first successful private lander and the first to do so using cryogenic propellants. Though it landed successfully, one of the lander's legs broke upon landing and it tilted up on other side, 18° due to landing on a slope, but the lander survived and payloads are functioning as expected.

Just before landing, at approximately 30 m (98 ft) above the lunar surface, the Odysseus lander was planned to eject the EagleCam camera-equipped CubeSat, which would have been dropped onto the lunar surface near the lander, with an impact velocity of about 10 m/s (22 mph). However, due to complications arising from the software patch, it was decided that EagleCam would not be ejected upon landing. It was later ejected on 28 February but was partially failure as it returned all types of data, except post IM-1 landing images that were the main aim of its mission.

The lander also includes the Lunar Library that contains a version of the English Wikipedia, artworks, selections from the Internet Archive, portions of the Project Gutenberg, and more. It is projected to reside on the Moon in a readable state for billions of years.

China Lunar Exploration Program

Main article: Chinese Lunar Exploration Program

On 13 March, China attempted to launch two spacecrafts, DRO-A and DRO-B, into distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, but the mission failed to reach the strived for orbit, remaining stranded in low Earth orbit. Tracking data appears to show China is attempting to salvage spacecraft and they appear to have succeeded in reaching their desired orbit.

On 20 March, China launched its relay satellite, Queqiao-2, to lunar orbit, along with two mini satellites Tiandu 1 and 2. Queqiao-2 will relay communications for the Chang'e 6 (far side of the Moon), Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 (Lunar south pole region) spacecrafts. Tiandu 1 and 2 will test technologies for a future lunar navigation and positioning constellation. All the three probes entered lunar orbit successfully on 24 March 2024 (Both were attached to each other and separated in lunar orbit on 3 April 2024).

China sent Chang'e 6 on 3 May 2024, which conducted the first lunar sample return from Apollo Basin on the far side of the Moon. This is China's second lunar sample return mission, the first was achieved by Chang'e 5 from the lunar near side four years earlier. It carries several international payloads as well as an un-(pre)announced Chinese mini-rover called Jinchan to conduct infrared spectroscopy of lunar surface and imaged Chang'e 6 lander on lunar surface. Turns out that the mini-rover was used to take picture(s) of the lander-ascender stack. The lander-ascender-rover combination was separated from the orbiter and returner before landing on 1 June 2024 at 22:23 UTC. It landed on the Moon's surface on 1 June 2024. The ascender was launched back to lunar orbit on 3 June 2024 at 23:38 UTC, carrying samples collected by the lander, and completed rendezvous and docking with the waiting orbiter in lunar orbit. The sample container was transferred to the returner, which landed in Inner Mongolia on 25 June 2024, completing China's lunar far side sample return mission. Pakistan sent a lunar orbiter called ICUBE-Q along with Chang'e 6. The lander also placed a small national flag of China, made of basalt, a substance that occurs in vast quantities on the Moon's surface, to demonstrate the spirit of in situ resource utilization. After dropping off the return samples for Earth, the Chang'e 6 (CE-6) orbiter was successfully captured by the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point on 9 September 2024.

Future

Nova-C 2, iSpace Lander and Blue Ghost are all planned to launch to the Moon this year. Aboard the Nova-C lander will be a 4G cellular network demonstration created in partnership between NASA and Nokia Bell Labs. The demonstration is meant to establish the beginnings of modern communication technology on the Moon.

DARPA provided funding towards a forward looking 10 year lunar architecture proposals. Aimed at creating the beginning stages of a lunar economy the DARPA lunar programs is participated in by many current industry leaders.

NASA's lunar rover, VIPER, that was expected to be launched by the end of the year, was cancelled in July.

Human spaceflight

On 4 February, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko broke the world record for the most time spent in space, when he surpassed the previous record of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds held by retired cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. After Kononenko returned on 23 September, the new records stands at 1110 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes.

On 5 June, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft conducted its crewed test flight. Sunita Williams became the first woman to fly on the maiden crewed flight of an orbital spacecraft (for a suborbital spacecraft, similar feat was accomplished by Wally Funk on Blue Origin NS-16 mission of New Shepard).

On 11 September, following the launch of Soyuz MS-26, a record breaking 19 people were simultaneously in orbit around Earth. In addition to the crew of MS-26, this included the crews of Polaris Dawn, Boe-CFT, SpaceX Crew-8, Soyuz MS-25 and Shenzhou 18.

Private human spaceflight and space tourism

SpaceX launched Axiom Mission 3 aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) on 18 January 2024. The successful mission ended with a splashdown on 9 February 2024.

On 26 January, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity was successfully launched from Spaceport America on Galactic 06 suborbital space tourism mission. Galactic 07 launched on 8 June, the final flight of Unity suborbital spaceplane.

Blue Origin's New Shepard also returned to suborbital space tourism launches with the successful NS-25 mission on 19 May. The next mission, NS-26, took place on 29 August.

Polaris Dawn, featuring the first commercial spacewalk, launched on September 10 09:23 UTC. On September 11, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 1400 km, which is farther from Earth than any person has been since Apollo 17.

Fram2, a human spaceflight to explore the polar regions on Crew Dragon is planned to launch before the end of 2024.

Rocket innovation

The maiden flight of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur took place on 8 January 2024. Vulcan is the first methane fueled rocket to reach orbit on its first attempt, and the first methane fueled rocket to reach orbit from the US.

China's Orienspace's Gravity-1 rocket completed its successful maiden flight on 11 January 2024, debuting on a new mobile sea platform in the Yellow Sea while breaking records as both the world's largest solid-fuel carrier rocket and China's most powerful commercial launch vehicle to date (as of early 2024).

On 5 March, for the first time due to their fast turnaround of 1 hour 51 minutes between launches, SpaceX launch operations for a mission (in this case, Starlink Group 6-41) coincided with that of a preceding launch (in this case, payload deployment of Transporter-10:(53 payloads SmallSat Rideshare).

On 13 March, the KAIROS rocket from Space One company attempted its maiden flight. The rocket was destroyed in an explosion five seconds after lift-off. No injuries were caused by the explosion.

On 9 April, the Delta IV Heavy flew its final mission. This was the final flight of the Delta rocket family.

Another test flight of the Russian Angara A5 launched on 11 April 2024.

On 7 May, Long March 6C flew its successful maiden mission.

In May, Rocket Factory Ausburg's RFA One arrived at SaxaVord Spaceport in preparation for its inaugural launch and the first launch from the new spaceport. The vehicle's first stage was destroyed during a static fire test in August, leading to the inaugural launch being delayed to 2025.

SpaceX's Starship launched its fourth integrated flight test (IFT-4) on June 6, 2024. The launch resulted in the successful controlled splashdown of both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship vehicle.

In June, Stoke Space tested its full flow staged combustion cycle (FFSC) engine with a successful hotfire, the test marks only the fourth FFSC engine to have made it far enough in development to reach hotfire.

The central core for the Ariane 6 inaugural flight vehicle was moved upright on the launch pad on 24 April 2024 in preparation for launch on 9 July. Launch occurred on 9 July but was a partial failure as though CubeSats were deployed correctly but second stage failed to relight due to an anomaly with an auxiliary power unit, and the second stage could not be deorbited and payloads studying and testing re-entry could not be deployed.

On 12 July, SpaceX launched a routine group of Starlink satellites called Starlink Group 9-3 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket experienced an in-flight failure. During launch, the second stage performed its first burn nominally; however, a liquid oxygen leak developed, causing the second burn to malfunction. The second stage engine disintegrated during a planned relight, leaving the satellites in an unusable orbit. The satellites were later lost due to atmospheric drag. Thus, this launch was the first Falcon 9 Block 5 or Falcon 9 Full Thrust failure thereby breaking the Guinness World Record of 325 successful Falcon 9 launches created by SpaceX since the pre-flight anomaly of AMOS-6.

On 28 August, SpaceX launched Starlink Group 8-6 on top of the flight leading first stage booster B1062. This was the booster's 23rd launch which was a new record for a Falcon 9 first stage. While successfully reaching and deploying the payload at the intended orbit, B1062 tipped over after touching down on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, ending a record breaking run of 267 successful Falcon booster landings in a row.

On 5 September, the original Vega rocket flew its final mission, successfully orbiting the Sentinel 2C satellite.

On 13 October, Starship flew its fifth orbital flight test during which, for the first time, the first stage booster was recovered. This makes Super Heavy the second ever orbital class rocket booster to be recovered by the use of retropropulsive landing (first being the Falcon 9 booster).

SpaceX completed 100 overall, Falcon family and Falcon 9 launches in October 2024, a first by any launch agency or company in a particular year.

The maiden flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn is planned for November.Initial rollout of the vehicle and testing was completed in February and in May Blue Origin planned to conduct additional testing in preparation for launch. On June 12 Blue Origin received the communications license necessary for the flight.

The maiden flight of Long March 8A, a variant of Long March 8 with a larger second stage, is scheduled for December 2024.

Satellite technology

Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem or PACE, a NASA Earth-observing satellite, launched on 8 February 2024.

In March, China successfully launched the Queqiao-2 relay satellite mission. The satellites are designed to act as a communication relay between its Chang’e missions (including the Chang'e 6) and Earth. The satellites were announced as operational in April.

In April, NASA launched a next-generation solar sail demonstration aboard a Rocket Lab Electron.

Next generation Earth imaging satellites WorldView Legion were launched on May 2.

ESA EarthCARE launched on May 28. Joint mission with JAXA.

NASA's GOES-U launched on June 25, with the capability to detect coronal mass ejections.

JAXA's ALOS-4 launched on July 1. It carries PALSAR-3 (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-3).

The European Sentinel 2C Earth observing satellite launched on 5 September.

Orbital launches

Main articles: List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2024 and List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2024

Numbers of orbital launches

Month	Successes	Failures	Partial failures
January	22	0	0
February	19	0	0
March	20	1	1
April	19	0	0
May	25	1	0
June	18	0	0
July	10	2	1
August	21	0	0
September	23	0	0
October	20	0	0
November	9	0	0
December	TBD	TBD	TBD
Total	206	4	2

Launches from the Moon

Date and time (UTC)	Rocket		Flight number	Launch site		LSP
		Payload (⚀ = CubeSat)	Operator	Orbit	Function	Decay (UTC)	Outcome
		Remarks
3 June 23:38:10	Chang'e 6 ascent vehicle			Chang'e 6 descent stage, Apollo Basin		CNSA
		Lunar soil sample container	CNSA	Selenocentric orbit	Sample return	6 June 2024	Successful
		Sample return mission. Launch happened roughly 48 hours after landing, during which lunar samples were collected. The ascent vehicle rendezvoused and docked with Chang'e 6 orbiter waiting in the lunar orbit and transferred the collected lunar samples to return vehicle for return to Earth.

Deep-space rendezvous

Date (UTC)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
19 January	SLIM	Lunar landing	Success
Late January	Peregrine	Lunar orbit insertion	Precluded due to propellant leak developing shortly after launch.
3 February	Juno	58th perijove	On the day of this perijove, Juno flew by Io at a distance of 1,500 km. Orbital period around Jupiter reduced to 33 days.
21 February	Nova-C (IM-1 Odysseus)	Lunar orbit insertion	Success
22 February	Nova-C (IM-1 Odysseus)	Lunar landing	Partial success; lander touched down successfully, but one of the footpads came to rest on a rock, and the lander leaned over, then toppled on its side. The lander survived the fall, with instrumentation and solar panels oriented upward.
24 March	Queqiao-2	Lunar orbit insertion	Success
24 March	Tiandu 1 and 2	Lunar orbit insertion	Success
8 May	Chang'e 6	Lunar orbit insertion	Success
1 June	Chang'e 6 lander and ascent vehicle	Lunar landing	Success Landing site is in the southern portion of Apollo crater within South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon. coordinates 41.64°S 153.99°W / -41.64; -153.99
6 June	Chang'e 6 ascent vehicle and orbiter	Lunar orbit rendezvous	Docking of ascent vehicle with orbiter; transfer of sample container from ascent vehicle to orbiter/return module.
25 June	Chang'e 6 orbiter and re-entry capsule	Trans-Earth injection	Orbiter and re-entry capsule separated after Earth orbit injection
25 June	Chang'e 6 re-entry capsule	Lunar sample return	Re-entry capsule bounced off the atmosphere once and landed in Inner Mongolia
19–20 August	JUICE	Gravity assist at Earth and Moon	Success
5 September	BepiColombo	Fourth gravity assist at Mercury	Success
6 November	Parker Solar Probe	Seventh gravity assist at Venus
2 December	BepiColombo	Fifth gravity assist at Mercury
13 December	Lucy	Second gravity assist at Earth	Target altitude 350 km
24 December	Parker Solar Probe	22nd perihelion, closest approach to the Sun

Extravehicular activities (EVAs)

See also: List of spacewalks since 2015

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks
1 March 2024 21:40	7 hours 52 minutes	05:32 (next day)	Shenzhou 17 TSS Wentian airlock	Tang Hongbo Jiang Xinlin	Fourteenth EVA from the Tiangong space station. Tasks included maintenance of the solar panels of the Tianhe core module, which have sustained minor damage caused by impacts of space debris and micrometeoroids; evaluation and analysis of the performance status of the solar panel power generation and also inspection of the status of the space station modules.
25 April 2024 14:57	4 Hours, 36 Minutes	19:33	Expedition 71 ISS Poisk	Oleg Kononenko Nikolai Chub	The cosmonauts ventured out and released launch locks on the Mini Radar Unit to get it deployed and installed a series of experiments TKK and Kvartz onto Poisk including a monoblock payload adapter and boom and photograph the Russian Segment.The Cosmonauts also repositioned the Plume Measurement Unit, removed an ion radiation probe and jettisoned it, and retrieved the Biorisk canisters for return to earth. The cosmonauts also wiped down the handrails on Nauka and Poisk to check for microbial growth and contamination from the radiator leak and from visiting vehicles and hydrazine from Nauka's arrival.
28 May 2024 02:35	8 hours 23 minutes	10:58	Shenzhou 18 TSS Wentian airlock	Ye Guangfu Li Guangsu	Longest Chinese spacewalk to date. Tasks included installing space debris protection devices and conducting inspections of extravehicular equipment and facilities.
24 June 2024 12:46	31 minutes	13:17	Expedition 71 ISS Quest	Tracy Caldwell Dyson Michael Barratt	Dyson and Barratt were intended to venture out and retrieve the SASA Antenna and bring it inside, collect samples from the station's hull to look for signs of microbial growth that could be present on the modules either after launch or exposed to space, and prep the LEE A Wrist Joint Replacement Module for installation on an upcoming spacewalk. However, the spacewalk was terminated shortly after depress due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit on Dyson’s spacesuit.
3 July 2024 08:19	6 hours 32 minutes	14:51	Shenzhou 18 TSS Wentian airlock	Ye Guangfu Li Cong	Tasks included installing space debris protection devices and conducting inspections of extravehicular equipment and facilities.
12 September 2024 10:12	26 minutes	11:58	Crew Dragon Resilience	Jared Isaacman Sarah Gillis Scott Poteet Anna Menon	Testing EVA capability of Dragon and a new suit designed by SpaceX. Isaacman left the capsule for 7 minutes and 56 seconds followed by Gillis, who left the capsule for 7 minutes and 15 seconds. The other two crew members were exposed to the vacuum of space in the capsule, but did not leave it. First all-private crew spacewalk with commercially developed hardware, procedures, and the EVA suit. New record for most people exposed to the vacuum of space at a time.

Space debris events

See also: List of space debris producing events

Date/Time (UTC)	Source object	Event type	Pieces tracked	Remarks
26 March	Long March 6A upper stage	Breakup	~60	Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.
26 June	Resurs-P No.1	Breakup	100+	Unknown
4 July	Long March 6A upper stage	Breakup	?	Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.
6 August	Long March 6A upper stage	Breakup	700-900+	Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.
6 September	Atlas V Centaur	Breakup	40+	Unknown
19 October	/ Intelsat 33e	Breakup	~500	Unknown; potential threat to all spacecraft in geostationary orbit, including the Russian satellites, Ekspress-AT1, Yamal-402, Ekspress-AM6 and Elektro-L.

Orbital launch statistics

By country

For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Electron rockets launched from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand are counted under the United States because Electron is an American rocket. Launches from the Moon are not included in the statistics.

Country		Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
	China	54	52	1	1
	Europe	2	1	0	1
	India	3	3	0	0
	Iran	3	3	0	0
	Japan	6	5	1	0
	North Korea	1	0	1	0
	Russia	13	13	0	0
	United States	130	129	1	0	Includes Electron launches from Mahia
World		212	206	4	2

By rocket

25

50

75

100

125

150

Ceres

Electron

Falcon

H-series

ILV

Kinetica

Kuaizhou

Long March

R-7

Starship

Vulcan

Others

•   Ceres-1
•   Electron
•   Falcon 9 new
•   Falcon 9 reused
•   Falcon Heavy
•   H-IIA
•   H3
•   GSLV
•   PSLV
•   SSLV
•   Kinetica 1
•   Kuaizhou 1A
•   Kuaizhou 11
•   Long March 2
•   Long March 3
•   Long March 4
•   Long March 5
•   Long March 6
•   Long March 7
•   Long March 8
•   Long March 12
•   Soyuz-2
•   Soyuz-2-1v
•   Starship
•   Vulcan Centaur
•   Atlas V
•   Jielong 3
•   Qaem 100
•   Others

By family

Family	Country	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Angara	Russia	2	2	0	0
Ariane	Europe	1	0	0	1
Atlas	United States	2	2	0	0
Ceres	China	4	4	0	0
Delta	United States	1	1	0	0	Final flight
Electron	United States	12	12	0	0
Falcon	United States	109	108	1	0
Firefly	United States	1	1	0	0
Gravity	China	1	1	0	0	Maiden flight
H-series	Japan	5	5	0	0
Hyperbola	China	1	0	1	0
ILV	India	3	3	0	0
Jielong	China	2	2	0	0
KAIROS	Japan	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
Kinetica	China	3	3	0	0
Kuaizhou	China	4	4	0	0
Long March	China	39	38	0	1
New-type satellite carrier rocket	North Korea	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
Qaem	Iran	2	2	0	0
R-7	Russia	11	11	0	0
Simorgh	Iran	1	1	0	0
Starship	United States	3	3	0	0
Vega	Europe	1	1	0	0
Vulcan	United States	2	2	0	0	Maiden flight

By type

Rocket	Country	Family	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Angara-1.2	Russia	Angara	1	1	0	0
Angara A5	Russia	Angara	1	1	0	0
Ariane 6	Europe	Ariane	1	0	0	1	Maiden flight
Atlas V	United States	Atlas	2	2	0	0
Ceres-1	China	Ceres	4	4	0	0
Delta IV	United States	Delta	1	1	0	0	Final flight
Electron	United States	Electron	12	12	0	0
Falcon 9	United States	Falcon	109	108	1	0
Firefly Alpha	United States	Firefly	1	1	0	0
GSLV	India	ILV	1	1	0	0
Gravity-1	China	Gravity	1	1	0	0	Maiden flight
H-IIA	Japan	H-series	2	2	0	0
H3	Japan	H-series	3	3	0	0
Hyperbola-1	China	Hyperbola	1	0	1	0
Jielong 3	China	Jielong	2	2	0	0
KAIROS	Japan	KAIROS	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
Kinetica 1	China	Kinetica	3	3	0	0
Kuaizhou 1	China	Kuaizhou	3	3	0	0
Kuaizhou 11	China	Kuaizhou	1	1	0	0
Long March 2	China	Long March	15	14	0	1
Long March 3	China	Long March	6	6	0	0
Long March 4	China	Long March	5	5	0	0
Long March 5	China	Long March	2	2	0	0
Long March 6	China	Long March	7	7	0	0
Long March 7	China	Long March	3	3	0	0
Long March 8	China	Long March	1	1	0	0
New-type satellite carrier rocket	North Korea	New-type satellite carrier rocket	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
PSLV	India	ILV	1	1	0	0
Qaem 100	Iran	Qaem	2	2	0	0
Simorgh	Iran	Simorgh	1	1	0	0
SSLV	India	ILV	1	1	0	0
Soyuz-2	Russia	R-7	11	11	0	0
Starship	United States	Starship	3	3	0	0
Vega	Europe	Vega	1	1	0	0
Vulcan Centaur	United States	Vulcan	2	2	0	0	Maiden flight

By configuration

Rocket	Country	Type	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Angara-1.2	Russia	Angara-1.2	1	1	0	0
Angara A5 / Orion	Russia	Angara A5	1	1	0	0	Maiden flight
Ariane 62	Europe	Ariane 6	1	0	0	1	Maiden flight
Atlas V 551	United States	Atlas V	1	1	0	0
Atlas V N22	United States	Atlas V	1	1	0	0
Ceres-1	China	Ceres-1	2	2	0	0
Ceres-1S	China	Ceres-1	2	2	0	0
Delta IV Heavy	United States	Delta IV	1	1	0	0	Final flight
Electron	United States	Electron	12	12	0	0
Falcon 9 Block 5	United States	Falcon 9	107	106	1	0
Falcon Heavy	United States	Falcon 9	2	2	0	0
Firefly Alpha	United States	Firefly Alpha	1	1	0	0
GSLV Mk-II	India	GSLV	1	1	0	0
Gravity-1	China	Gravity-1	1	1	0	0	Maiden flight
H-IIA 202	Japan	H-IIA	2	2	0	0
H3-22S	Japan	H3	3	3	0	0
Hyperbola-1	China	Hyperbola-1	1	0	1	0
Jielong 3	China	Jielong 3	2	2	0	0
KAIROS	Japan	KAIROS	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
Kinetica 1	China	Kinetica 1	3	3	0	0
Kuaizhou 1A	China	Kuaizhou 1	3	3	0	0
Kuaizhou 11	China	Kuaizhou 11	1	1	0	0
Long March 2C	China	Long March 2	5	5	0	0
Long March 2C / YZ-1S	China	Long March 2	1	0	0	1
Long March 2D	China	Long March 2	6	6	0	0
Long March 2D / YZ-3	China	Long March 2	1	1	0	0
Long March 2F/G	China	Long March 2	2	2	0	0
Long March 3B/E	China	Long March 3	4	4	0	0
Long March 3B/E / YZ-1	China	Long March 3	2	2	0	0
Long March 4B	China	Long March 4	3	3	0	0
Long March 4C	China	Long March 4	2	2	0	0
Long March 5	China	Long March 5	2	2	0	0
Long March 6	China	Long March 6	2	2	0	0
Long March 6A	China	Long March 6	4	4	0	0
Long March 6C	China	Long March 6	1	1	0	0	Maiden flight
Long March 7	China	Long March 7	1	1	0	0
Long March 7A	China	Long March 7	2	2	0	0
Long March 8	China	Long March 8	1	1	0	0
New-type satellite carrier rocket	North Korea	New-type satellite carrier rocket	1	0	1	0	Maiden flight
PSLV-DL	India	PSLV	1	1	0	0
Qaem 100	Iran	Qaem 100	2	2	0	0
Simorgh	Iran	Simorgh	1	1	0	0
SSLV	India	SSLV	1	1	0	0
Soyuz-2.1a	Russia	Soyuz-2	6	6	0	0
Soyuz-2.1b	Russia	Soyuz-2	1	1	0	0
Soyuz-2.1b / Fregat	Russia	Soyuz-2	3	3	0	0
Soyuz-2-1v	Russia	Soyuz-2	1	1	0	0
Starship Block 1	United States	Starship	3	3	0	0
Vega	Europe	Vega	1	1	0	0	Final flight
Vulcan Centaur VC2S	United States	Vulcan Centaur	2	2	0	0	Maiden flight

By spaceport

25

50

75

100

125

150

Australia

China

France

India

Iran

Japan

Kazakhstan

New Zealand

North Korea

Russia

South Korea

United Kingdom

United States

•   Bowen
•   Jiuquan
•   South China Sea
•   Taiyuan
•   Wenchang
•   Xichang
•   Yellow Sea
•   Kourou
•   Satish Dhawan
•   Semnan
•   Shahroud
•   Kii
•   Tanegashima
•   Uchinoura
•   Baikonur
•   Mahia
•   Sohae
•   Plesetsk
•   Vostochny
•   Naro
•   SaxaVord
•   Cape Canaveral
•   Kennedy
•   MARS
•   PSCA
•   Starbase
•   Vandenberg

Site	Country	Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
Baikonur	Kazakhstan	6	6	0	0
Cape Canaveral	United States	57	57	0	0
Jiuquan	China	17	16	1	0
Kennedy	United States	20	20	0	0
Kii	Japan	1	0	1	0	First launch
Kourou	France	2	1	0	1
Mahia	New Zealand	11	11	0	0
MARS	United States	1	1	0	0
Plesetsk	Russia	4	4	0	0
Satish Dhawan	India	3	3	0	0
Semnan	Iran	1	1	0	0
Shahroud	Iran	2	2	0	0
Sohae	North Korea	1	0	1	0
South China Sea	China	2	2	0	0
Starbase	United States	3	3	0	0
Taiyuan	China	10	10	0	0
Tanegashima	Japan	5	5	0	0
Vandenberg	United States	38	37	1	0
Vostochny	Russia	3	3	0	0
Wenchang	China	6	6	0	0
Xichang	China	16	15	0	1
Yellow Sea	China	3	3	0	0
Total		212	206	4	2

By orbit

50

100

150

200

Transatmospheric

Low Earth

Medium Earth / Molniya

Geosynchronous / Tundra / transfer

High Earth / Lunar transfer

Heliocentric

•   Transatmospheric
•   Low Earth
•   Low Earth (ISS)
•   Low Earth (CSS)
•   Low Earth (SSO)
•   Low Earth (polar)
•   Low Earth (retrograde)
•   Medium Earth
•   Molniya
•   Geosynchronous
•   Tundra
•   High Earth
•   Lunar transfer
•   Heliocentric

Orbital regime	Launches	Achieved	Not achieved	Accidentally achieved	Remarks
Transatmospheric	3	3	0	0
Low Earth / Sun-synchronous	177	174	3	1	Including flights to ISS and Tiangong (CSS)
Geosynchronous / Tundra / GTO	19	19	0	0
Medium Earth / Molniya	5	5	0	0
High Earth / Lunar transfer	5	4	1	0
Heliocentric orbit / Planetary transfer	3	3	0	0
Total	212	208	4	1

Suborbital launch statistics

By country

For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of suborbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. Flights intended to fly below 80 km (50 mi) are omitted.

Country		Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
	Brazil	2	2	0	0
	Canada	5	5	0	0
	Germany	1	1	0	0
	India	1	1	0	0
	Iran	301	301	0	0	From the 2024 Iranian strikes in Israel
	Netherlands	1	0	0	1
	North Korea	1	1	0	0
	Poland	1	1	0	0
	Russia	2	2	0	0
	United States	17	16	1	0
World		330	329	1	1

Maiden orbital flights

Rocket	Origin	Organization	Launch	Outcome	Ref.
Vulcan Centaur VC2S	United States	ULA	8 January	Success
Gravity-1	China	Orienspace	11 January	Success
KAIROS	Japan	Space One	13 March	Failure
Angara A5 / Orion	Russia	Roscosmos	11 April	Success
Long March 6C	China	CASC	7 May	Success
New-type satellite carrier rocket	North Korea	NATA/Khrunichev	27 May	Failure
Ariane 62	Europe	Arianespace	9 July	Partial failure
New Glenn	United States	Blue Origin	November	Planned
Long March 8A	China	CASC	December	Planned
Eris Block 1	Australia	Gilmour Space Technologies	December	Planned
Aurora	Canada	Reaction Dynamics	Q4	Planned
Darwin-II	China	Rocket Pi	TBD	Planned
Hanbit-Nano	South Korea	Innospace	TBD	Planned
Long March 12 (formerly XLV)	China	CASC	TBD	Planned
Nebula-1	China	Deep Blue Aerospace	TBD	Planned
Vikram-1	India	Skyroot Aerospace	NET Q4	Planned

External links

• Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
• Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
• Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
• Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
• Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
• McDowell, Jonathan. "GCAT Orbital Launch Log".
• Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
• Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
• Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
• Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
• "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
• "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
• "Space Calendar". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• "Space Information Center". JAXA.
• "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).

Generic references:
Spaceflight portal