by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

It was a busy first half of 2022 that saw 77 orbital launches with 74 successes and three failures through the 182nd day of the year on July 1. At a rate of one launch every 2 days 8 hours 44 minutes, the world is on track to exceed the 146 launches conducted in 2021.

A number of significant missions were launched during a period that saw more than 1,000 satellite launched. SpaceX flew the first fully commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing conducted an orbital flight test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, China prepared to complete assembly of its space station, South Korea launched its first domestically manufactured rocket, and Rocket Lab sent a NASA mission to the moon.

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

China launched two rockets with 23 satellite aboard on Sunday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. A Long March 4C launched the L-SAR 01B Earth observation satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The synthetic aperture radar satellite will provide data for land resources use, mapping, forestry, and disaster prevention and relief efforts. L-SAR 01B joins its twin satellite, L-SAR 01A, which was launched on Jan. 26, Xinhua reported. The […]

China’s surging space program showed no sign of slowing down last year as it tied its own launch record and moved ahead with ambitious space missions and a set of new launchers.

China compiled a record of 35 successes and four failures in 2020. That matched the number of launch attempts made in 2018, a year that saw 38 successes and a single failure.

SpaceX dominated, China surged and Russia had another clean sheet as American astronauts flew from U.S. soil again in a year of firsts.

First in a series

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a very busy launch year with a number of firsts in both human and robotic exploration. A total of 114 orbital launches were attempted, with 104 successes and 10 failures. It was the same number of launches that were conducted in 2018, with that year seeing 111 successes, two failures and one partial failure.

On Friday, a Chinese Long March 4C booster launched the Yaogan-34 remote sensing satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Data from Yaogan-34 will be used for land surveys, land ownership confirmation, urban planning, crop yield estimates, road network design, and disaster prevention and mitigation. Yaogan-34 was developed by the Eighth Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. This launch was the 368th of the […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

There were 27 orbital launch attempts with 26 successes and one failure during the first quarter of 2021. The United States accounted for nearly half the total with 13 launches behind nine flights by SpaceX.

On Wednesday morning, the Long March 4C carrier rocket launched the Gaofen 12-02 Earth observation satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Gaofen 12-02 will be primarily used for land census, urban planning, land rights confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention and mitigation. Long March 4C was developed by the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group. For multi-satellite launch missions, the booster can carry […]

A Long March 4C rocket successfully launched a trio of Yaogan 31 spacecraft on Saturday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Gobi Desert. The booster lifted off at 10:19 a.m. local time. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) declared the launch to be a complete success. CASC described the Yaogan satellites as being used primarily for monitoring electromagnetic signals. Western analysts believe the spacecraft contain a […]

China completed a busy year that saw the nation tie its own record for launch attempts with the successful orbiting of a remote sensing satellite and a secondary nanosat on Sunday. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:44 p.m.. local time carrying the Yaogan Weixing-33 (R) spacecraft. The spacecraft will be “mainly used for scientific experiment research, marine and land resource surveys […]

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the NROL-47 mission lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Credit: ULA)

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…)