Three launches in the first year
The log begins in 1957 with 3 launches, 2 of them successful. The next year it has 28 and only 8 reach orbit, a success rate of 29%. By 1967 the world is launching 141 times a year with a success rate of 90%. The early failure rate shows how new the technology was. In all, GCAT logs 7,433 launches through October 16, and 1,611 of them, 22%, were flown in the eight years since 2019.
The count has risen every year since 2019, from 102 that year to 329 in 2025. SpaceX's Falcon 9 flew 165 of the 2025 launches, and 127 of all launches that year, 39%, carried Starlink satellites.
Launches per year since 1957
Data table
| Year | Attempts | Successful |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 85 | 81 |
| 2001 | 59 | 57 |
| 2002 | 65 | 61 |
| 2003 | 63 | 61 |
| 2004 | 55 | 52 |
| 2005 | 56 | 52 |
| 2006 | 66 | 62 |
| 2007 | 68 | 65 |
| 2008 | 69 | 66 |
| 2009 | 78 | 74 |
| 2010 | 74 | 70 |
| 2011 | 84 | 78 |
| 2012 | 78 | 73 |
| 2013 | 81 | 78 |
| 2014 | 92 | 89 |
| 2015 | 87 | 82 |
| 2016 | 85 | 83 |
| 2017 | 90 | 84 |
| 2018 | 114 | 112 |
| 2019 | 102 | 97 |
| 2020 | 115 | 105 |
| 2021 | 146 | 135 |
| 2022 | 186 | 179 |
| 2023 | 223 | 211 |
| 2024 | 264 | 258 |
| 2025 | 329 | 318 |
| 2026 | 246 | 239 |
Where they launched from in 2025
The United States accounted for 181 launches and China for 92.Cape Canaveral led the launch sites with 82, with Vandenberg next on 64.
By country
By launch site
Which rockets flew
Why other sites give a different total
Sources disagree on the total for 2025 because they count different things. This page counts every orbital launch attempt, successful or not, and that includes 5 Starship test flights: 329 in all. Leave the Starship flights out and the total is 324, a figure other trackers report because they exclude suborbital test flights. Count only launches that worked and it's 318 here, with 11 failures.
The Cold War plateau
The count climbs from 50 in 1961 to 141 in 1967, then settles into a band. The 1970s total 1,237 launches and the 1980s 1,193, a decade of steady, mostly government launching. For more than half a century 141 was the record. It fell in 2021.
The long slump
In the 1990s the count fell. The 1990s total 891, and the 2000s 664. The lowest year since 1970 is 2004, with 55 launches. That's 39% of the old record, and about one launch a week.
The recovery and the dip
The turn came in the 2010s. The year 2010 had 74 launches, and 2018 had 114. Then 2019 dipped to 102, which is why the surge that followed looks sudden. The 2019 page covers the year that started it.
The surge
From 102 in 2019 the count rose every year to 329 in 2025, a gain of 227. Most of the gain is Starlink: 127 of the 2025 launches carried Starlink satellites, against 2 in 2019, so Starlink accounts for 125 of the extra 227. SpaceX flew 170 launches in 2025, 52% of all of them. Details are on the SpaceX page.
Reliability changed too
The success rate was 29% in 1958, 90% in 1967 and 95% in 2004. It was 97% in 2025, on more than three hundred launches. Counting here means a propulsive success: GCAT scores the rocket's delivery, not what the satellite did afterwards.
Starlink and the rest
Starlink launches as a share of all launches, year by year: 2019: 2 of 102 (2%); 2020: 14 of 115 (12%); 2021: 19 of 146 (13%); 2022: 34 of 186 (18%); 2023: 63 of 223 (28%); 2024: 90 of 264 (34%); 2025: 127 of 329 (39%). Take those launches out and the rest of the world still grew, from 100 non-Starlink launches in 2019 to 202 in 2025. The growth is therefore not only one constellation, though one constellation is the largest part of it. Reliability held up while the count rose: the success rate was 91.3% or better in every year from 2019 to 2025, and 97.7% at its best, in 2024.
Decade by decade
Totals by decade, with the success rate across all launches in it: the 1960s 998 launches at 84% success (best year 1967, 141); the 1970s 1,237 launches at 94% success (best year 1971, 135); the 1980s 1,193 launches at 96% success (best year 1982, 129); the 1990s 891 launches at 94% success (best year 1990, 121); the 2000s 664 launches at 95% success (best year 2000, 85); the 2010s 887 launches at 95% success (best year 2018, 114); the 2020s 1,509 launches at 96% success (best year 2025, 329). The 2020s figure covers the years so far. It's already larger than any full decade before it.
The busiest and quietest years
The ten busiest years in the log are 2025 (329), 2024 (264), 2026 (246), 2023 (223), 2022 (186), 2021 (146), 1967 (141), 1966 (136), 1971 (135), 1975 (132). Six of the ten are from 2019 or later. Since 1970 the quietest years were 2004 with 55, 2005 with 56 and 2001 with 59. The year-by-year pages start at 2019 for the full detail on each year of the surge, and the China page covers the country with the second most launches in the last full year.
What to watch
The record to beat is 329. Through October 16, 2026 has 246 launches against 243 at the same point in 2025, so it's running at about the same pace. The year-by-year pages start at 2019 and run to 2026, the partial year.