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2023 in spaceflight

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2023 in spaceflight
Deployable RIME antenna of the ESA's JUICE in Earth orbit as it heads to the moons of Jupiter
Launch of Zhuque-2, the first ever methalox rocket to successfully reach space orbit
The ISRO Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-lands on the surface of the Moon in August, making India the fourth country to successfully soft-land on the lunar surface
Dinkinesh photographed by the Lucy spacecraft originally launched in 2021
ISS's Expedition 69 and Axiom Mission 2
Tiangong's Shenzhou 17 crew before launch
Orbital launches
First3 January
Last30 December
Total223
Successes211
Failures11
Partial failures1
Catalogued212
National firsts
Spaceflight
 Oman (suborbital spaceflight due to failed orbital launch)
Satellite
Space traveller
Rockets
Maiden flights
Retirements
Crewed flights
Orbital6
Orbital travellers21
Suborbital5
Suborbital travellers30
Total travellers51
2023 in spaceflight
← 2022
2024 →

The year 2023 saw rapid growth and significant technical achievements in spaceflight. For the third year in a row, new world records were set for both orbital launch attempts (223) and successful orbital launches (211). The growth in orbital launch cadence can in large part be attributed to SpaceX, as they increased their number of launches from 61 in 2022 to 98 in 2023. The deployment of the Starlink satellite megaconstellation was a major contributing factor to this increase over previous years. This year also featured numerous maiden launches of new launch vehicles. In particular, SSLV, Qaem 100, Tianlong-2, Chollima-1,and Zhuque-2 performed their first successful orbital launch, while SpaceX's Starship – the world's largest rocket – launched two times during its development stage: IFT-1 and IFT-2.

In terms of national-level scientific space missions, ISRO successfully soft-landed Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon, Roscosmos's Luna 25 failed to land on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx returned an asteroid sample from 101955 Bennu back to Earth and NASA's Lucy probe performed a flyby of asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh. This year also saw the launch of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer probe, JAXA's XRISM space telescope, JAXA's SLIM lunar lander, and NASA's Psyche asteroid probe.

Two crewed space stations, the International Space Station (ISS) and Tiangong, were in operation in 2023. In terms of crewed missions, the ISS saw Expedition 68, 69, and 70, while Tiangong saw Shenzhou 15, 16, and 17. The ISS also briefly hosted crews of Axiom Mission 2, a private spaceflight mission. Notably, because Soyuz MS-22 was afflicted by a coolant leak, Soyuz MS-23 was launched as a replacement crew return vehicle.

This year also saw the first time citizens of Antigua and Barbuda and Pakistan crossed the 50 mi (80 km) altitude mark, which is the United States's definition of outer space. They did so in a suborbital launch organized by Virgin Galactic, however, they did not managed to cross the Kármán line (100 km or 62 mi). Albania, Djibouti, Ireland, Oman and Vatican City (on behalf of Italy) have their own satellite in orbit for the first time in 2023.

Overview

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Astronomy and Astrophysics

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European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid satellite was launched towards Sun-Earth L2 point by a Falcon 9 rocket on July 1. The satellite observes distant galaxies to study dark matter and dark energy.

ISRO launched Aditya-L1 to study the Sun on September 2.

JAXA launched XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) X-ray space telescope and SLIM lunar lander on September 6.

Exploration of the Solar System

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On 14 April, ESA launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft to explore Jupiter and its large ice-covered moons following an eight-year transit.[1]

The OSIRIS-REx mission returned to Earth on 24 September with samples collected from asteroid Bennu.[2]

NASA launched the Psyche spacecraft on 13 October 2023, an orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.

On November 1, NASA's Lucy probe performed a flyby of asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh, revealing it to be a binary pair.[3][4]

Lunar exploration

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ISRO launched its third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 on 14 July 2023 at 9:05 UTC;[5] it consisted of lander, rover and a propulsion module,[6] and successfully landed in the south pole region of the Moon on 23 August 2023. For technology demonstration experiments, hop experiment on the Vikram Lander was conducted and the Propulsion Module (PM) of Chandrayaan-3 was moved from an orbit around Moon to an orbit around Earth, where it operated until 22 August 2024.[7][8]

Russian lunar lander Luna 25 was launched on 10 August 2023, 23:10 UTC, atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.[9] It is the first Russian attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon since the Soviet lander Luna 24 in 1974. It crashed on the Moon on 19 August after technical glitches.

JAXA launched SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lunar lander (carrying two mini rovers) and a space telescope (XRISM) on 6 September. SLIM entered orbit around the Moon on 25 December (UTC).

Human spaceflight

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A new record for the number of people in space at the same time, though not necessarily all in orbit, was reached on 25 May 2023. 20 people were in space simultaneously, with eleven people aboard the ISS, three on Tiangong, and six on VSS Unity.[10] Five days later on 30 May, the record for the number of people in orbit simultaneously was broken as well, with 17 people in orbit at once; 6 people on Tiangong from Shenzhou 15 and 16, 7 people from Expedition 69 on the ISS as well 4 crew members from Axiom-2 also on the ISS.[11][10]

Private Human Spaceflight and Tourism

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Axiom Mission 2 private crew mission to the International Space Station was launched on 21 May 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The mission ended with the successful return of the crew to Earth on 31 May 2023.

Virgin Galactic Unity 25 mission took place 25 May 2023. This was the first mission for Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceplane VSS Unity since 2021. On 29 June 2023, Virgin Galactic flew their first commercial suborbital spaceflight mission, Galactic 01, with their suborbital spaceplane VSS Unity. Onboard Unity were three employees of the company and three passengers (whose flight had been paid from outside the company) from the Italian Air Force and Italy’s National Research Council.[12] On 10 August Virgin Galactic flew their Galactic 02 mission, the first VSS Unity flight carrying a space tourist. Galactic 03 mission flew on 8 September, followed by Galactic 04 on 6 October and Galactic 05 on 2 November 2023. All of these crewed suborbital missions were flown by Unity.

Rocket innovation

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On 10 January, ABL Space Systems' RS1 had its debut flight, but failed to reach orbit.[13]

On 10 February, SSLV rocket developed by ISRO had its first successful orbital launch.

On 4 March, IRGC's Qaem 100 performed its orbital maiden flight following a successful suborbital test flight in 2022. However the vehicle, which was carrying the Nahid-1 satellite, failed to put the payload in orbit.[14][15]

On 7 March, JAXA/MHI H3's maiden flight was terminated in-flight due to failure to ignite the second stage, resulting in the loss of the ALOS-3 land observation satellite.[16]

On 23 March, Relativity Space's Terran 1 had its debut flight. The flight goal, which was to demonstrate the viability of 3D printing for major structural components of a rocket, was achieved when Terran 1 passed max q and continued to perform nominally. However, after stage separation, the second stage failed to ignite, ending the mission.[17] Following the failed launch, Relativity retired the rocket in favor of developing the much larger, reusable Terran R vehicle.[18]

On 2 April, Space Pioneer's Tianlong-2 had its debut flight, and successfully reached orbit. It was the first successful launch of a Chinese privately-funded liquid-fueled rocket. Space Pioneer is the first private company to reach orbit on its first attempt using a fully liquid fueled rocket.[19]

On 20 April, SpaceX's Starship had its first test flight,[20] aiming to complete about three-quarters of an orbit and landing in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Kauai.[21] Several engines on the booster failed during the flight and the flight termination system was triggered, ending the flight before stage separation.

On 22 April, Evolution Space completed its first suborbital space flight test with the Gold Chain Cowboy solid-fueled rocket.[22]

On 30 May, the North Korean Chollima-1 made its first orbital launch attempt, carrying the military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1.[23] However, the launch failed to achieve orbit when the second stage ignited too early in the mission.[24] The launch vehicle crashed into the Yellow Sea.[25]

On 12 July, LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket, in its second flight, became the world's first methane-fuelled rocket to successfully reach orbit.[26]

On 5 September, the sea-launched version of the Ceres-1 launch vehicle, designated Ceres-1S, made its successful debut.

On 15 September, the Firefly Alpha made its successful flight for a tactically responsive mission for the U.S. Space Force.[27]

On November 18, 2023, SpaceX Starship attempted its second flight test, becoming the heaviest rocket to enter space, although the first stage exploded shortly after separation, while the second stage was lost nearly eight minutes after launch. In the same month, they completed the construction of crew access tower at CCSFS SLC-40 launch pad, where they completed 50 launches alone on that launch pad. They also completed 250th Falcon booster landing.

In December 2023, USA broke the world record of most launches by a nation (108), held by Soviet Union in 1982.[28][29] In the same month, they completed 200th successful Falcon booster autonomous spaceport droneship landing.

Satellite technology

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On January 27, ESA reported the successful demonstration of a braking sail-based satellite deorbiter, ADEO, which could be used by space debris mitigation measures.[30][31]

In April, Chinese media first reported on tests of flexible organic solar cells on balloons in the 35 km stratosphere.[32][33]

On 29 July a Falcon Heavy rocket launched the Jupiter-3 (EchoStar-24)[34] communications satellite to geosynchronous orbit. With a mass of over 9 tonnes, EchoStar's Jupiter-3 is the heaviest geostationary satellite ever launched.[35]

On 1 June, Caltech reported the first successful demonstration of solar energy from space via its SSPD-1 spacecraft.[36][37]

Orbital launches

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Main articles: List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2023 and List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2023
List of orbital launches
Month Num. of successes Num. of failures Num. of partial failures
January 14 2 0
February 12 0 0
March 22 3 0
April 11 1 0
May 19 1 0
June 13 0 0
July 18 0 0
August 21 1 0
September 21 2 0
October 17 0 0
November 15 1 0
December 28 0 1
Total 211 11 1

Deep-space rendezvous

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Date (UTC) Spacecraft Event Remarks
21 March Hakuto-R Mission 1 Lunar orbit insertion Success[38]
25 April Hakuto-R Mission 1 Lunar landing Communications were lost, landing failed.[39]
19 June BepiColombo Third gravity assist at Mercury
31 July Juno 53rd perijove On this perijove Juno flew by Io at a distance of 22,000 km.[40]
5 August Chandrayaan-3 Lunar orbit insertion Success[41]
16 August Luna 25 Lunar orbit insertion Success[42]
19 August Luna 25 Lunar landing Communications were lost, crashed onto the Moon's surface.[43]
21 August Parker Solar Probe Sixth gravity assist at Venus
23 August Chandrayaan-3 Lunar landing Success[44]
24 September OSIRIS-REx Sample return to Earth and gravity assist at Earth Success[45]
4 October SLIM Flyby of the Moon Part of the spacecraft's approach to lunar orbit via a Weak stability boundary like trajectory
Between 13 October and 10 November Chandrayaan-3 4 Lunar flybys on Earth return Success[7]
1 November Lucy Flyby of 152830 Dinkinesh The spacecraft flew by the asteroid at a distance of 425 km.[46]
25 December SLIM Lunar orbit insertion Success[47]
30 December Juno 57th perijove On the day of this perijove, Juno flew by Io at a distance of 1,500 km. Orbital period around Jupiter reduced to 35 days.[48][49]

Extravehicular activities (EVAs)

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See also: List of spacewalks since 2015
Start Date/Time Duration End Time Spacecraft Crew Remarks
20 January 2023
13:14 		7 hours 21 minutes 20:35 Expedition 68
ISS Quest
 Japan Koichi Wakata
United States Nicole Mann 		First spacewalk of 2023 to finish installation of the IROSA mounting brackets on the starboard side of the station. Wakata and Mann installed cables on the 1B Array at the S6 truss, which was not completed on the last spacewalk, tightened bolts and installed a terminator on a cable along with its connected jumper on the SSDCDC converter box to isolate the 1B array until the IROSA solar arrays are installed following the arrival of SpaceX CRS-28 in June. They also assembled and installed the IROSA mounting bracket onto the 1A array, which was also left incomplete on the last spacewalk. Wakata and Mann were unable to secure the final strut on the 1A solar array because of debris in the guide track of the mounting pad and only one of the jumpers was installed. The astronauts returned the strut to the Quest Airlock and will use special tools to clean the tracks before it is remounted on the next spacewalk. They were also unable to connect the cables for 1A due to time constraints. NASA astronaut Zena Cardman was Ground IV, assisted by JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who was the Capcom for the astronauts inside the ISS during the spacewalk.[50][51][52]
2 February 2023
12:45 		6 hours 41 minutes 19:26 Expedition 68
ISS Quest
 United States Nicole Mann
Japan Koichi Wakata 		Final spacewalk to install the mounting brackets for the 1A solar array in preparation for the delivery of IROSA on SpaceX CRS-28. Tasks included installing the final strut, securing the bolts on the 1A solar array, relocating foot restraints that were left on P6 inboard, and routing cables. NASA astronaut Zena Cardman was Ground IV.[53][54]
9 February 2023
9:10 		7 hours 6 minutes 16:16 Shenzhou 15
TSS Wentian airlock 		China Fei Junlong
China Zhang Lu 		They completed a series of tasks, including installing the fourth external pump (Z01-04) on the Mengtian lab module and other tasks related to Mengtian's payload airlock, which allows astronauts to deploy science payloads and small satellites using the station's robotic arms. After successfully completing the installation and commissioning of the extended pump set in the Mengtian experimental cabin, Fei Junlong needs to transfer to the core cabin of Tianhe, remove the foot stopper in the tool box outside the node, and then return to the Mengtian experimental cabin, and install it in the designated location for the second time out of the cabin to install large equipment. For the first time, Fei Junlong held a large-scale foot stopper and an external operating platform to carry out a large-scale transfer, which put forward higher requirements for the safety of the task.[55] It is China's longest spacewalk to date.[56]
2 March 2023
??:?? 		? hours ? minutes ??:?? Shenzhou 15

TSS Wentian airlock

China Fei Junlong
China Zhang Lu 		Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu went out of the cabin again to perform tasks such as the installation of external equipment on the space station. After leaving the cabin, Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu first autonomously transferred to the operating point with the help of the handrail outside the cabin. During the crawling process, Fei Junlong had to take off the two safety rope hooks of the previous handrail and hang them on the next handrail every time he moved a handrail. Repeatedly picking and hanging the hooks was a small challenge and not good for the strength of the astronaut’s upper limbs.

The equipment that Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu are going to install for the second time out of the cabin has about 20 plugs, and these plugs have protective covers.[57] When installing, you need to pull out the protective covers before inserting the plugs. Do a power test. Other tasks were to dump trash bags during spacewalk.[58]

30 March 2023
??:?? 		? hours ? minutes ??:?? Shenzhou 15

TSS Wentian airlock

China Fei Junlong
China Zhang Lu 		Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu partnered again to perform the third out-of-cabin activity and complete the task of installing and connecting cables across the cabin. There are more than 40 plugs at both ends of the cross-cabin cable, and the work intensity and difficulty are greater than last time.

Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu successfully completed this mission in a way that they had not trained before.[59] Other tasks were to dump trash bags during spacewalk.[60]

15 April 2023
??:?? 		? hours ? minutes ??:?? Shenzhou 15

TSS Wentian airlock

China Fei Junlong
China Zhang Lu 		During the fourth spacewalk, the three astronauts of the Shenzhou 15 crew worked closely together inside and outside the cabin, and successfully completed the installation of the fifth extended pump (Z02-01) set outside the Mengtian, the installation and connection of cross-cabin cables, and the external load exposure platform. The installation of support rods and other tasks laid the foundation for the subsequent large-scale extravehicular science and technology experiments. Other tasks were to dump trash bags during spacewalk.[61]
19 April
01:40 		7 hours 55 minutes 09:35 Expedition 69

ISS Poisk

Russia Sergey Prokopyev
Russia Dmitry Petelin 		Ninth in a series of spacewalks to outfit Nauka and to prepare ERA for operations. The spacewalkers used ERA to pick up the radiator with the arm where it was relocated at the end of the spacewalk. They closed valves on the nitrogen jumpers, removed covers over the nitrogen jumpers, disconnected the radiator heater cable and capped it, removed bolts and launch restraints, and transferred the radiator over to Nauka and installed it into a socket on the forward face where it will be deployed at the end of EVA 4. As part of get-ahead tasks, they will prepare the airlock for transfer to Nauka on the next spacewalk and stowed the ERA adapter on the airlock. Because of time and issues with matting the radiator the task to jettison the covers was moved to the next spacewalk. This was the longest spacewalk of this expedition and a critical one to get the lab activated.[62]
28 April
13:11 		7 hours 1 minute 20:12 Expedition 68
ISS Quest
 United States Stephen Bowen
United Arab Emirates Sultan Al Neyadi 		Bowen and Al Neyadi, who became the first Arab astronaut to perform a spacewalk, finished routing cables and secured the struts with MLI at the 1B and 1A solar arrays in preparation for the arrival of the IROSA arrays in June. The primary task to retrieve the Space to Ground Antenna (SASA) was deferred to the next spacewalk because a stuck bolt on the electronics box prevented the antenna from being released from the FRAM. NASA Astronaut Anne McClain was Ground IV CAPCOM.[63][64][65]
4 May
20:00 		7 hours 11 minutes 03:11 Expedition 69

ISS Poisk

Russia Sergey Prokopyev
Russia Dmitry Petelin 		Tenth in a series of spacewalks to outfit Nauka and to prepare ERA for operations. The spacewalkers removed bolts, removed covers, disconnected cables, and used ERA to transfer the airlock over to Nauka where it was installed on the forward facing port. Once the airlock was installed they mated cables and jettisoned their trash which included hardware and covers from the previous spacewalks and this spacewalk. Spacewalk faced a delay when ERA entered an uncontrolled roll placing the airlock out of alignment. Prokopyev and Petelin improvised with a little elbow grease and got the airlock rotated into the correct position and got it latched in place. Spacewalk faced another delay when tape was found on the electrical connectors requiring Prokopyev to cut it before the cables were connected.[66][67][68][69]
12 May
15:47 		5 hours 14 minutes 23:01 Expedition 69

ISS Poisk

Russia Sergey Prokopyev
Russia Dmitry Petelin 		Eleventh and final spacewalk to outfit Nauka and to prepare ERA for operations. To wrap up work on Nauka, the cosmonauts deployed the radiator, and installed nitrogen and ammonia jumpers to cool the Russian Segment and connected the radiator to electrical power, hydraulics, and mechanical connections. As a getahead task while the radiator was being filled with coolant the cosmonauts installed gap spanners on ERA's boom to allow for translation on future spacewalks.[70][71]
9 June
13:15 		6 hours 3 minutes 19:18 Expedition 69
ISS Quest
 United States Stephen Bowen
United States Woody Hoburg 		NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg exited the station’s Quest airlock and installed an upgraded IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array) on the 1A power channel on the starboard truss of the station. Task included removing bolts, deploying the rollers, and installing cables before the solar array was picked up by Hoburg with assistance from Canadarm 2 and installed on the 1A solar array on the S4 Truss. The array was deployed at 16:32 hours and is receiving power.[72][73]
15 June
12:42 		5 hours 35 minutes 18:17 Expedition 69
ISS Quest
 United States Stephen Bowen
United States Woody Hoburg 		NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg exited the station’s Quest airlock to install the final upgraded IROSA (International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array) on the 1B power channel on the starboard truss of the station. Task included removing bolts, deploying the rollers, and installing cables before the solar array was picked up by Hoburg with assistance from Canadarm 2 and installed on the 1B solar array on the S6 Truss. The array was deployed at 16:51 hours and is receiving power. As part of getahead task they covered the cables in MLI and secured the struts, relocated their foot restraints inboard, and stowed the support beams on the flight support structure for disposal. [74][75]
22 June
14:24 		6 hours 24 minutes 20:48 Expedition 69

ISS Poisk

Russia Sergey Prokopyev
Russia Dmitry Petelin 		Prokopyev and Petelin exited the Poisk airlock and routed an Ethernet cable to the port experiment frame on the Zvezda Service Module, jettisoned experiment hardware including the TMTC Monoblock antennas, the highspeed data transmission antenna, and the Seismo Prognos payload, installed a data transmission radio onto the port frame, removed experiments from the Zvezda Service Module, photographed Zvezda including the thrusters so they can patch the leak, inspected an antenna, and retrieved the Biorisk containers. As a getahead they cleaned the windows on the Russian segment, reposition the Plume Measurement Unit, and jettisoned a towel.[76][77]
20 July 2023
05:45 		7 hours 55 minutes 13:40 Shenzhou 16
TSS Wentian airlock 		China Jing Haipeng
China Zhu Yangzhu 		They installed & lifted the bracket for panoramic camera B of core module, unlocked & lifted panoramic camera A/B of Mengtian lab module. Zhu Yangzhu became first Chinese flight engineer to conduct an extravehicular activity.[78]
9 August
14:44 		6 hours 35 minutes 21:19 Expedition 69

ISS Poisk

Russia Sergey Prokopyev
Russia Dmitry Petelin 		Twelfth and final spacewalk to outfit Nauka and to prepare ERA for operations. Both cosmonauts ventured outside the station’s Poisk Airlock to attach three debris shields to the Rassvet module. They also tested the sturdiness of the last MLM outfitting called the ERA portable workpost, that will be affixed to the end of the European robotic arm attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.[79][80][81]
25 October
17:49 		7 hours 41 minutes 01:30 (next day) Expedition 70

ISS Poisk

Russia Oleg Kononenko
Russia Nikolai Chub 		The cosmonauts ventured outside and installed a mini radar experiment on Nauka, launched a CubeSat which will test solar sails, and photographed the RTOd radiator and closed valves to isolate the radiator and vented residual coolant so plans can be done to fix a leaking cooling line that delayed two US spacewalks. During one of the vents, Kononenko got sprayed and the coolant got on one of his tethers. The tether was placed in a trash bag and stowed externally to decontaminate it, while Kononenko's suit was wiped down to prevent coolant from entering the station. During the radar deployment, one of the hinges got stuck. The cosmonauts will go out on the next spacewalk with a pole and lock the hinges so it can be deployed. During the satellite deployment, the telescoping booms did not come out and ground controllers are working to manually deploy them so the satellite can track the sun. [82][83][84]
1 November 2023
12:05 		6 hours 42 minutes 18:47 Expedition 70
ISS Quest
 United States Jasmin Moghbeli
United States Loral O'Hara 		Moghbeli and O'Hara ventured outside and removed an H fixture from the 3B mass canister on the P4 truss in preparation for the arrival of the struts and the IROSA solar arrays in 2025. They also replaced a damaged Trundle Bearing under Cover 2 which had been giving them trouble in the past and greased the tracks before the new Trundle Bearing was installed on the port SARJ, secured a cable on Camera 8 which was shorting out a light used for dockings, and released wedge clamps on the SASA antenna. The primary task to retrieve the SASA antenna from ESP2 so it can be returned to Earth on SpaceX CRS-29 was moved to the next spacewalk because of issues removing the covers from the SARJ. O'Hara was not secured properly during the removal and had to be assisted by Moghbeli to get the cover stowed. During the spacewalk, the bag containing the grease gun was lost, but the tools were not needed and the bag posed no collision risk to the station. This was the fourth all-female spacewalk on the station, following Christina Koch and Jessica Meir's three spacewalks during Expedition 61.[85][86][87]
21 December 2023
6:10 		7 hours 25 minutes 13:35 Shenzhou 17
TSS Wentian airlock 		China Tang Hongbo
China Tang Shengjie 		Tasks included a repair test of the Tianhe core module's solar panels, which have sustained minor damage caused by impacts of space debris and micrometeoroids.[88]

Space debris events

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See also: List of space debris producing events
Date/Time (UTC) Source object Event type Pieces tracked Remarks
4 January Russia Kosmos 2499 Breakup 85 Energetic fragmentation event; Cause Unknown
11 March United States Orbcomm F36 Breakup 7 Unknown; likely energetic fragmentation event caused by a malfunction in the hydrazine orbit adjust system[89][90]
29 June Soviet Union Kosmos 2143 (Strela-3) Breakup 6 Unknown; likely energetic fragmentation caused by battery overpressure. Six fragments alongside the primary vehicle.[91]
21 August European Union Vega VV02 VESPA adapter Breakup 7 Unknown; likely debris impact[92][93]

Orbital launch statistics

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By country

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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. As an example, Electron launches from Mahia in New Zealand are counted under USA.

China: 67Europe: 3India: 7Iran: 2Israel: 1Japan: 3North Korea: 3Russia: 19South Korea: 2USA: 116
Country Launches Successes Failures Partial
failures 		Remarks
 China 67 66 1 0
 Europe 3 3 0 0
 India 7 7 0 0
 Iran 2 1 1 0
 Israel 1 1 0 0
 Japan 3 2 1 0
 North Korea 3 1 2 0
 Russia 19 19 0 0
 South Korea 2 2 0 0
 United States 116 109 6 1 Includes Electron launches from Mahia
Broke world record of most launches by a nation (108) held by Soviet Union in 1982.[94][95]
World 223 211 11 1

By rocket

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By family

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By type

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By configuration

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By spaceport

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25
50
75
100
125
150
China
France
India
Iran
Israel
Japan
Kazakhstan
New Zealand
North Korea
Russia
South Korea
United Kingdom
United States
Site Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks
Baikonur  Kazakhstan 9 9 0 0
Cape Canaveral  United States 59 58 1 0
Cornwall  United Kingdom 1 0 1 0 First launch
Jeju[96]  South Korea 1 1 0 0 First launch
Jiuquan  China 36 35 1 0
Kennedy  United States 13 13 0 0
Kourou  France 3 3 0 0
Mahia  New Zealand 7 6 1 0
MARS  United States 3 3 0 0
Naro  South Korea 1 1 0 0
PSCA  United States 1 0 1 0
Palmachim  Israel 1 1 0 0
Plesetsk  Russia 7 7 0 0
Satish Dhawan  India 7 7 0 0
Shahroud  Iran 2 1 1 0
Sohae  North Korea 3 1 2 0
South China Sea  China 2 2 0 0
Starbase  United States 2 0 2 0 First orbital launch
Taiyuan  China 9 9 0 0
Tanegashima  Japan 3 2 1 0
Vandenberg  United States 30 29 0 1
Vostochny  Russia 3 3 0 0
Wenchang  China 4 4 0 0
Xichang  China 15 15 0 0
Yellow Sea  China 1 1 0 0
Total 223 211 11 1

By orbit

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  •   Low Earth
  •   Low Earth (ISS)
  •   Low Earth (CSS)
  •   Low Earth (SSO)
  •   Low Earth (retrograde)
  •   Medium Earth
  •   Molniya
  •   Geosynchronous
  •   Tundra
  •   Lunar transfer
  •   High Earth Orbit
  •   Heliocentric
  •  
Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not achieved Accidentally
achieved 		Remarks
Transatmospheric 2 0 2 0
Low Earth / Sun-synchronous 185 176 9 0 Including flights to ISS and Tiangong (CSS)
Geosynchronous / Tundra / GTO 25 25 0 0
Medium Earth / Molniya 6 6 0 0
High Earth / Lunar transfer 2 2 0 0
Heliocentric orbit / Planetary transfer 3 3 0 0
Total 223 212 11 0

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: 1Brazil: 3Canada: 7China: 2France: 2Germany: 1India: 0Iran: 2Israel: 1Japan: 1The Netherlands: 0North Korea: 7Pakistan: 3Russia: 5Slovenia: 0South Korea: 1Taiwan: 0Turkey: 1United Kingdom: 0USA: 39Ukraine: 0Yemen: 1
Country Launches Successes Failures Partial
failures 		Remarks
 Brazil 3 3 0 0
 Canada 7 6 1 0
 China 2 2 0 0
 France 2 2 0 0
 Germany 1 0 1 0
 Iran 2 2 0 0
 Israel 1 1 0 0
 Japan 1 1 0 0
 North Korea 7 7 0 0
 Pakistan 3 2 1 0
 Russia 5 4 1 0
 South Korea 1 1 0 0
 Turkey 1 1 0 0
 United States 39 35 4 0
 Yemen 1 1 0 0
World 77 69 8 0

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Davenport, Justin (14 April 2023). "ESA launches JUICE to Jupiter's icy moons atop Ariane 5".
  2. ^ Tillman, Nola Taylor; Howell, Elizabeth (11 November 2022). "OSIRIS-REx: NASA's asteroid study and sample return mission". Space.com. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
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[edit]
Generic references:

Spaceflight portal
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