7,370 orbital launch attempts in 69 years — a two-power race that became a many-nation launch map

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.”

This atlas covers every distinct orbital and deep-space launch attempt in the GCAT launch log — 7,370 launches, successes and failures alike, from Sputnik on 4 October 1957 through the source’s latest update on 30 August 2026 (accessed 1 September 2026). Each row carries its year, site, pad, operating bloc — the launching state per GCAT, not necessarily the country the pad sits in — and whether the site complex is still active.

The launch map, played year by year

One dot per launch attempt, placed at its site’s coordinates and jittered so density stays visible. Colour is the operating bloc. Press play, or scrub to any year. Hover a cluster for the site’s totals.

1957

Launches per year, 1957–2026

Height is the supplied yearly total of orbital launch attempts. 2026 is a partial year: the log stops at 30 August 2026.

Findings

The USA (2,454) and the USSR (2,449) account for two of every three launches ever attempted; adding Russia’s 896 post-1991 launches, the old two-power system still covers 79% of the log. planet4589.org

China is now the third-largest operator with 794 attempts, and twenty distinct blocs — from New Zealand (80) to single launches by Australia and Germany — appear in the register. planet4589.org

Activity has never been higher: 2025’s 329 attempts beat every Cold War peak, and 2026 already logged 208 by 30 August. planet4589.org

Almost every pad complex ever used is still marked active: only 23 of the 7,370 launches flew from a site now inactive — Plesetsk (1,685), Baykonur (1,557) and the Canaveral–Kennedy complex (1,388) all launched again in 2026. planet4589.org

The complete register

All 7,370 launches, newest first. Filter by any field; the count updates. Site active means the site complex is currently marked in GCAT’s catalog or used for an orbital attempt in 2024 or later.

Year	Launch date	Launch id	Site	Pad	Vehicle	Bloc	Site active	Source

Data: GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org) derived launch log, accessed 2026-09-01; latest source update 2026-08-30. 7,370 rows, one per distinct GCAT launch ID with launch code beginning O (orbital) or D (deep-space/orbital-class); GCAT’s orbital flag covers flights whose target perigee is positive within uncertainty, with some borderline Starship tests included. Operating bloc is the launching/operating state per GCAT, not the sovereign territory of the site. Site status derives from GCAT’s site catalog current marker, with a fallback marking a site active if its last orbital attempt was 2024 or later; this is complex-level status, not per-pad. Counts (total, per year, per site) are taken directly from GCAT-supplied aggregates. Yearly totals include failures; 2026 is partial.

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