Rocket launches into space worldwide over the past three years
According to the American analytics and engineering firm BryceTech, SpaceX has tripled its rocket launches over the past two years and leads the world, while China, Russia and India are all stepping up their programmes.
Rocket launches into space worldwide over the past three years
According to BryceTech, an American analytics and engineering firm that works with science and technology clients and also develops strategy, competitive intelligence and forecasting, SpaceX has tripled its number of rocket launches over the past two years. SpaceX is the world leader in rocket launches. It is a private American space company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. The company has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Starship launch vehicles, with reusability as the goal from the outset, and the Dragon and Dragon 2 spacecraft, which are placed in orbit by the Falcon 9 and designed to carry cargo and people to low Earth orbit and the ISS.
Among the world’s ten most active launch companies are two other private American firms, Rocket Lab and United Launch Alliance. Rocket Lab makes aerospace hardware and provides small-satellite launch services, and is developing a new medium-lift launch vehicle, Neutron. United Launch Alliance is a joint venture owned by Boeing, an American maker of aviation, space and military equipment, and Lockheed Martin, an American defence corporation. ULA puts spacecraft into orbit using three types of launch vehicle: Atlas V, Delta II and Delta IV.
Three Chinese companies, CASC, Galactic Energy and ExPace, also increased their launches over 2021–2023. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is a state-owned rocket and space corporation and one of China’s ten largest defence-industry conglomerates.
ExPace is a Chinese state-owned rocket and space company, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). It specialises in small-satellite launch vehicles and low Earth orbit.
Galactic Energy is a Chinese private space company that launches with its four-stage Ceres-1 rockets. It became the second private company in China to put a satellite into orbit, after i-Space, and the fourth to attempt an orbital launch, after Landspace, OneSpace and i-Space. Galactic Energy is now developing Pallas-1, a two-stage medium-lift orbital launch vehicle, whose first flight is expected by the end of 2024.
Russia ranks third by number of launches into space. The state space corporation Roscosmos reduced its launches in 2023 compared with 2022.
India has successfully joined the global space race: the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has increased its launches over the past three years. India has in effect become the fourth space power, after the United States, China and Russia.
The French space company Arianespace, which specialises in commercial launch services, cut its launches substantially over 2021–2023. Arianespace uses the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, as its launch site.