by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The year 2018 was the busiest one for launches in decades. There were a total of 111 completely successful launches out of 114 attempts. It was the highest total since 1990, when 124 launches were conducted.
China set a new record for launches in 2018. The nation launched 39 times with 38 successes in a year that saw a private Chinese company fail in the country’s first ever orbital launch attempt.
The United States said this week that a Russian satellite launched last year is exhibiting “very abnormal behavior” in orbit, suggesting that it is a weapons system rather than a “space apparatus inspector” as claimed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“In October of last year the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed a space object they claimed was a ‘space apparatus inspector,'” said Yleem D.S. Poblete, assistant secretary at the U.S. Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. “But its behavior on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities.”
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The world’s launch providers were extremely busy in the first half of 2018, with China and the United States battling for the lead.
There with 55 orbital launches through the end of June, which amounted to a launch every 3.29 days or 79 hours. The total is more than half the 90 launches attempted in 2017. With approximately 42 missions scheduled for the last six months of the year, the total could reach 97. (more…)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The world’s launch providers have been extremely busy in the first quarter of 2018, with 31 orbital launches thus far. This is more than one third of the 90 launches conducted last year.
China leads the pack with 10 successful launches. The United States is close behind with a total of nine launches with one failure. The tenth American launch is scheduled for Monday afternoon from Florida.
SpaceX successfully launched 10 Iridium Next satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Friday morning.
Iridium-NEXT satellites 41-50 were successfully deployed from the booster’s second stage about an hour after the launch at 7:13 a.m. PDT. It was the fifth batch of 10 Iridium-NEXT satellites that SpaceX has orbited using three different first stage boosters.
Below is the updated launch schedule through the end of April. The 17 scheduled launches include:
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
SpaceX had a banner year in 2017, launching a record 18 times and helping to propel the United States to the top of the global launch table with a perfect 29-0 record. The U.S. total made up 32.2 percent of 90 orbital launches worldwide, which was an increase over the 85 flights conducted in 2016.
The 29 American launches were a leap of seven over the 22 flights conducted the previous year. This is the highest number of American orbital launches since the 31 flights undertaken in 1999. However, that year the nation’s launch providers suffered four failures whereas they were perfect in 2017.
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
For the second year in a row, Russia came tantalizingly close to breaking a string of launch failures extending back nearly a decade.
In three days, the nation’s space program would have gone 12 months without botching a launch. Thirty days after that, an entire calendar year would have passed without a full or partial launch failure. Last year, Russia came within four days and 30 days of those marks, respectively.
We are now halfway through 2017, so it seems like a good time to take a look at the year in orbital launches.
| ORBITAL LAUNCHES THROUGH JUNE 2017 | ||||
| NATION | SUCCESSES | FAILURES | PARTIAL FAILURES | TOTAL |
| United States | 13 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Russia | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| China | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Europe | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| India | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Japan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 39 | 2 | 1 | 42 |
A total of 42 launches have been conducted thus far, with 39 successes, two failures and one partial failure. The two failures were inaugural flight tests of new boosters.
American companies have launched 13 times. Nine of those flights have been conducted by SpaceX, giving the company more launches than anyone else thus far. United Launch Alliance successfully three three Atlas V boosters and one Delta IV rocket.
Russia has conducted eight launches. Included in the total are two Russian Soyuz flights conducted from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.
China is close behind with seven launches. Six flights were successful, but a Long March 3B booster suffered a partial failure earlier this month that left a spacecraft in a lower-than-planned orbit.
| LAUNCHES BY VEHICLE THROUGH JUNE 2017 | |||||
| LAUNCH VEHICLE | NATION | SUCCESSES | FAILURES | PARTIAL FAILURES | TOTAL |
| Falcon 9 | United States | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Soyuz 2 | Russia | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Ariane 5 | Europe | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Atlas V | United States | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| H-IIA | Japan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Long March 3B | China | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| PSLV | India | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Delta IV | United States | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GSLV Mk II | India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GSLV Mk III | India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| KT-2 | China | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kuaizhou 1 | China | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Long March 2D | China | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Long March 7 | China | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Proton | Russia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Soyuz-2.1v | Russia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vega | Europe | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Electron | New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| S-520-4 | Japan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 39 | 2 | 1 | 42 | |
Europe follows with five successful launches, including four using the Ariane 5 booster and one using the Vega launcher.
India launched four times, with the highlight being the successful first orbital test of the new GSLV Mk. III booster. The launch vehicle — the nation’s most powerful to date — had been previously tested during a suborbital flight without an upper stage.
Japan also launched four times with three successes. The maiden flight test of Japan’s new SS-520-4 nanosat launcher failed in January, destroying some CubeSats.
New Zealand made the orbital launch list for the first time this year. The maiden flight test of Rocket Lab’s Electron booster failed to orbit an inert mass. Rocket Lab is a U.S.-New Zealand company.
The end of the line is coming soon for Russia’s Rockot (Rokot) launch vehicle.
The converted intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has only two more missions on its manifest before the program ends. In the months ahead, it will launch Sentinel 5P and Sentinel 3B Earth observation satellites for ESA and the European Commission.
The Sentinel 5P launch is set for June. Tass reports the Sentinel 3B flight will likely occur late this year or early 2018.
Rockot is being phased out in favor of the newer Angara-1.2 and Soyuz-2.1v boosters, which are capable of launching lighter payloads.
Rockot is a converted SS-19 ICBM built by Khrunichev and operated by Eurockot Launch Services. Flights are conducted from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.
The three-stage booster is capable of lifting 1,950 kg (4,299 lb) in low Earth orbit (LEO) and 1,200 kilograms (2,646 lb) into sun synchronous orbit (SSO).
Rockot has launched 30 times, with 27 successes, two failures and one partial failure.
The retirement of Rockot ends Russia’s second program that used in converted Soviet-era ICBMs as satellite launchers. In 2015, the country ended a joint program with Ukraine to convert SS-18 missiles into Denpr launch vehicles.
Dnepr was capable of lifting 4,500 kg (9,921 lb) to LEO and 2,300 kg (5,071 lb) to SSO.
The booster was launched 22 times, with 21 successes and one failure. The last flight was on March 25, 2015.
Dnepr launches were conducted out of Yasny in Russia and Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
The FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) voted last week to recommend that the U.S. government maintain its ban on the use of excess ICBM motors for launching commercial satellites. The recommendation to the FAA is a non-binding one.
The International Monetary Fund estimates the Ukrainian space industry lost up to 80 percent of its revenues following the Russian invasion of the eastern part of the country.
Russia doesn’t seem overly impressed by the recent progress by SpaceX and Blue Origin in developing reusable launch vehicles. At according to TsNIIMash, which is the company’s main research institute.
“The economic feasibility of reusable launch systems is not obvious. First and foremost it will depend on how often launches will be made. At the moment it is hard to forecast which way the market of launch services will go when reusable space rockets become available. The designers are still to demonstrate the real costs of production and of making reusable stages for re-launching,” a TsNIIMash spokesman said.
Russia continued its dominance of the global satellite launch industry in 2015, conducting 29 of 86 orbital launches over the past 12 months. It also maintained its lead in botched launches, suffering two failures and one partial failure.
UPDATE: TASS is reporting the primary payload, Kanopus ST, failed to separate from the upper stage. Efforts to correct the problem have reportedly failed.
Russian media are reporting that one of two military satellites placed into orbit by a Soyuz 2-1v rocket has failed to separate from its Volga upper stage after launch on Saturday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
The Kanopus ST satellite includes sensors designed to track submarines, and the KYuA 1 secondary payload is a passive spacecraft that would be used to calibrate ground-based military radars. It’s unclear which spacecraft might still be attached to the upper stage.
This was the second launch for the Soyuz 2-1v, which successfully flew its maiden flight in December 2013. The rocket is a slimmed down version of the Soyuz 2 launcher, with the four booster rockets removed from the first stage and he NK-33 engine replacing the RD-117 motor. The launcher is capable of playing up to 2,850 kg into low Earth orbit.
TsSKB Progress, which manufactures the Soyuz 2-1v, began developing the Volga stage in 2008 as a cheaper alternative to the Fregat upper stage. The Volga is based upon a propulsion module that has been used on previous spacecraft. It successfully flew on Soyuz 2-1v first flight in 2013.
