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2024 in spaceflight

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2024 in spaceflight
Orbital launches
First1 January
Last9 November
Total210
Successes204
Failures4
Partial failures2
Catalogued122
National firsts
Satellite
Space traveller
Rockets
Maiden flights
Retirements
Crewed flights
Orbital9
Orbital travellers28
Suborbital4
Suborbital travellers24
Total travellers52
2024 in spaceflight
← 2023
2025 →

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

[edit]

Astronomy and astrophysics

[edit]

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.[1][2][3] 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.[4]

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),[5] 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

[edit]

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.[6][7]

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

[edit]

Peregrine

[edit]

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

[edit]

SLIM achieved the first-ever lunar soft landing for a Japanese spacecraft.[8] It landed on 19 January 2024 at 15:20 UTC, making Japan the 5th country to soft land on the Moon.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] SLIM showed perseverance and survived another lunar night waking up on 28 March 2024.[12]

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.[11] 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.[13] 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.[14][15][13]

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.[16] 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.[17]

On 27 March 2024, SLIM survived its second lunar night and woke up sending more images back to Earth, showing "perseverance."[12] 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."[18]

On 24 April 2024, it survived its third lunar night and woke up sending more images back to Earth.[19]

Nova-C

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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.[20]

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.[21][22][23][24]

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.[25][26]

China Lunar Exploration Program

[edit]
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.[27][28] Tracking data appears to show China is attempting to salvage spacecraft and they appear to have succeeded in reaching their desired orbit.[29][30]

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.[31] 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).[32][33]

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.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36] 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.[37][38] 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.[39] 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.[40]

Future

[edit]

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.[41]

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.[42]

Human spaceflight

[edit]

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.[43] After Kononenko returned on 23 September, the new records stands at 1110 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes.[44]

On 5 June, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft conducted its crewed test flight.[45] 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

[edit]

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,[46] 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.[47]

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.[48]

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

Rocket innovation

[edit]

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.[49]

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).[50]

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.[51][52]

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.[53] The vehicle's first stage was destroyed during a static fire test in August, leading to the inaugural launch being delayed to 2025.[54]

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.[55]

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.[56]

The central core for the Ariane 6 inaugural flight vehicle was moved upright on the launch pad on 24 April 2024[57] in preparation for launch on 9 July.[58] 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,[59][60] and the second stage could not be deorbited and payloads studying and testing re-entry could not be deployed.[61]

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.[62] The second stage engine disintegrated during a planned relight, leaving the satellites in an unusable orbit.[63] The satellites were later lost due to atmospheric drag.[64] 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.[65][66]

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.[67]

On 5 September, the original Vega rocket flew its final mission, successfully orbiting the Sentinel 2C satellite.[68]

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.[69]Initial rollout of the vehicle and testing was completed in February[70] and in May Blue Origin planned to conduct additional testing in preparation for launch.[71] On June 12 Blue Origin received the communications license necessary for the flight.[72]

The maiden flight of Long March 8A, a variant of Long March 8 with a larger second stage, is scheduled for December 2024.[73]

Satellite technology

[edit]

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.[74][75]

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

[edit]
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 7 0 0
December TBD TBD TBD
Total 204 4 2

Launches from the Moon

[edit]
Date and time (UTC) Rocket Flight number Launch site LSP
Payload
(⚀ = CubeSat) 		Operator Orbit Function Decay (UTC) Outcome
Remarks
3 June
23:38:10[77] 		China Chang'e 6 ascent vehicle Chang'e 6 descent stage, Apollo Basin China CNSA
China 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.[76] 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

[edit]
Date (UTC) Spacecraft Event Remarks
19 January SLIM Lunar landing Success[78]
Late January Peregrine Lunar orbit insertion Precluded due to propellant leak developing shortly after launch.[79]
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.[80][81]
21 February Nova-C (IM-1 Odysseus) Lunar orbit insertion Success[82]
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.[83]
24 March Queqiao-2 Lunar orbit insertion Success[84]
24 March Tiandu 1 and 2 Lunar orbit insertion Success[84]
8 May[85] Chang'e 6 Lunar orbit insertion Success[86]
1 June[37] Chang'e 6 lander and ascent vehicle Lunar landing Success[37]
Landing site is in the southern portion of Apollo crater within South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon.[76] coordinates 41°38′S 153°59′W / 41.64°S 153.99°W / -41.64; -153.99
6 June[76] 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.[76]
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[76] Chang'e 6 re-entry capsule Lunar sample return Re-entry capsule bounced off the atmosphere once and landed in Inner Mongolia[37]
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)

[edit]
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 		China Tang Hongbo
China 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.[87]
25 April 2024
14:57 		4 Hours, 36 Minutes 19:33 Expedition 71

ISS Poisk

Russia Oleg Kononenko
Russia 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.[88][89]
28 May 2024
02:35 		8 hours 23 minutes 10:58 Shenzhou 18
TSS Wentian airlock 		China Ye Guangfu
China Li Guangsu 		Longest Chinese spacewalk to date. Tasks included installing space debris protection devices and conducting inspections of extravehicular equipment and facilities.[90]
24 June 2024
12:46 		31 minutes 13:17 Expedition 71
ISS Quest
 United States Tracy Caldwell Dyson
United States 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.[91]
3 July 2024
08:19 		6 hours 32 minutes 14:51 Shenzhou 18
TSS Wentian airlock 		China Ye Guangfu
China Li Cong 		Tasks included installing space debris protection devices and conducting inspections of extravehicular equipment and facilities.
12 September 2024
10:12 		26 minutes[a][92] 11:58 Crew Dragon Resilience United States Jared Isaacman
United States Sarah Gillis
United States Scott Poteet
United States 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.[93]

Space debris events

[edit]
See also: List of space debris producing events
Date/Time (UTC) Source object Event type Pieces tracked Remarks
26 March China Long March 6A upper stage Breakup ~60 Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.[94][95]
26 June Russia Resurs-P No.1 Breakup 100+ Unknown[96]
4 July China Long March 6A upper stage Breakup ? Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.[94][97]
6 August China Long March 6A upper stage Breakup 700-900+ Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown; but may be related to upper stage passivization or insulation.[94][98]
6 September United States Atlas V Centaur Breakup 40+ Unknown[99]
19 October Luxembourg/United States 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.[100][101]

Orbital launch statistics

[edit]

By country

[edit]

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.

Australia: 0China: 53Europe: 2Germany: 0India: 3Iran: 3Israel: 0Japan: 6North Korea: 1Russia: 13South Korea: 0USA: 129
Country Launches Successes Failures Partial
failures 		Remarks
 China 53 51 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 129 128 1 0 Includes Electron launches from Mahia
World 210 204 4 2

By rocket

[edit]

By family

[edit]

By type

[edit]

By configuration

[edit]

By spaceport

[edit]
25
50
75
100
125
150
Australia
China
France
India
Iran
Japan
Kazakhstan
New Zealand
North Korea
Russia
South Korea
United Kingdom
United States
Site Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks
Baikonur  Kazakhstan 6 6 0 0
Cape Canaveral  United States 57 57 0 0
Jiuquan  China 16 15 1 0
Kennedy  United States 19 19 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 210 204 4 2

By orbit

[edit]
  •   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 176 173 3 1 Including flights to ISS and Tiangong (CSS)
Geosynchronous / Tundra / GTO 18 18 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 210 206 4 1

Suborbital launch statistics

[edit]

By country

[edit]

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.

Spain: 0Brazil: 2Canada: 5China: 0France: 0Germany: 1India: 1Iran: 301Israel: 0Japan: 0The Netherlands: 1North Korea: 1Pakistan: 0Poland: 1Russia: 2Slovenia: 0South Korea: 0Taiwan: 0Turkey: 0United Kingdom: 0USA: 17Ukraine: 0Yemen: 0
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

[edit]
Rocket Origin Organization Launch Outcome Ref.
Vulcan Centaur VC2S  United States ULA 8 January Success [102]
Gravity-1  China Orienspace 11 January Success [103]
KAIROS  Japan Space One 13 March Failure [104]
Angara A5 / Orion  Russia Roscosmos 11 April Success [105]
Long March 6C  China CASC 7 May Success [106]
New-type satellite carrier rocket  North Korea NATA/Khrunichev 27 May Failure [107]
Ariane 62  Europe Arianespace 9 July Partial failure [108]
New Glenn  United States Blue Origin November Planned [109]
Long March 8A  China CASC December Planned [110]
Eris Block 1  Australia Gilmour Space Technologies December Planned [111]
Aurora  Canada Reaction Dynamics Q4 Planned [112]
Darwin-II  China Rocket Pi TBD Planned
Hanbit-Nano  South Korea Innospace TBD Planned [113]
Long March 12 (formerly XLV)  China CASC TBD Planned [114]
Nebula-1  China Deep Blue Aerospace TBD Planned [115]
Vikram-1  India Skyroot Aerospace NET Q4 Planned [116]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ hatch open to hatch close

References

[edit]
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[edit]
Generic references:

Spaceflight portal
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