Worldwide Commercial Space Launches
Embedded Dataset Excel:
Dataset Excel:
table_01_39_q3_2018.xlsx (20.7 KB)Notes:
A commercial launch is a launch that is internationally competed (i.e., available in principle to international launch providers) or whose primary payload is commercial in nature. FAA-licensed launches carrying captive government (NASA and DOD) or industry payloads (ORBCOMM, Delta 3 demosat, Zenit 3SL demosat, and others) are counted here. Data are for orbital launches only.
Description:
a Sea Launch is an international venture involving organizations in four countries and uses its own launch facility outside national borders. Their first commercial launch, in 1999, was licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Sea Launch filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2009 and thus had no launches in the second half of the year.
Source:
1990–99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, personal communication, June 4, 2002.
2000-14: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Commercial Space Transportation: Year in Review (Washington, DC: Annual Issues), table 2, available at http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/ as of May 19, 2015.