7,183 orbital launch attempts since Sputnik, from 48 sites — 37 still firing

Asked:

“Every orbital launch from 1957 to today — for each one list the year, the launch site, the operating bloc and whether the site is still active.”

The catalog below covers every recorded orbital launch attempt — successes and confirmed failures — from the first three in 1957 through 231 in 2026, with a cutoff of 2026 Sep 24 UTC: 7,183 attempts in all, across 48 normalized launch sites and 43 historical operating states and blocs. The launch-level facts are single-sourced from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT, corroborated at yearly level by Orbital Radar.

Launch sites of the world, sized by launches through the selected year

1957–2026
Site still active (open-ended GCAT status)Site closedCircle area = cumulative launches through the selected year. Hover a site for its record.

Attempts per year, 1957–2026

Plesetsk alone accounts for 1,688 attempts — the busiest site in the catalog — followed by Baykonur with 1,496 and Cape Canaveral with 1,012. planet4589.org
2025 is the busiest year on record with 325 attempts; 2026 already holds 231 through the September 24 cutoff. orbitalradar.com
The USSR (2,392) and USA (2,118) together operated 63% of all attempts; post-1991 Russia adds 870 and China 770. planet4589.org
One 2021 record (2021-U01, site code TYSC?) has unresolved site status and coordinates; it is kept in the table with a blank status rather than dropped. planet4589.org

All 7,183 launches — single-sourced (GCAT), corroborated at yearly level by Orbital Radar

Launch IDDate (UTC)YearSiteOperating blocSite activeVehicleSource

Method: 7,183 orbital launch attempts (GCAT LaunchCode beginning O — successful and confirmed failed attempts; suborbital, missile and deep-space-only categories excluded), 1957 through 2026-09-24 UTC, from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT launch list, corroborated per year against Orbital Radar (which itself builds on GCAT, so not a fully independent catalog). Site names normalized to current canonical facilities (e.g. all Cape Canaveral eras merged); “operating bloc” is the historical state/bloc of the launch-service organization, not the payload owner. “Site active” is Yes for an open-ended GCAT site status, No for a closed stop date, blank when unresolved (one 2021 record). Dates are UTC at first motion. Agency codes, outcome codes and site coordinates were cut from the table for space; they inform the map and counts.

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