Timeline of first orbital launches by country

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Orbital launch projects and capabilities <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />
  Confirmed orbital launch capable country
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  Confirmed orbital launch capable intergovernmental organization (ESA) members
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  Orbital launch project in development or planned
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  Abandoned orbital launch project

This is a timeline of first orbital launches by country. While a number of countries, incl. Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa, the Philippines, Egypt, Spain, Mexico, Thailand and Chile, have built or launched satellites, as of 2022, eleven countries, incl. the United States, Japan, China, India, Iran, Israel, France, the United Kingdom and South Korea, have had the capability to send objects into orbit with their own launch vehicles. Russia and Ukraine inherited the capability of the space launchers and satellites from the Soviet Union, following its dissolution in 1991. Russia launches its rockets from its own and foreign (Kazakh) spaceports.

Ukraine launched only from foreign (Kazakh and Russian) launch facilities until 2015, after which political differences with Russia effectively halted Ukraine's ability to produce orbital rockets.[1][2] France became a space power independently, launching a payload into orbit from Algeria, before joining space launcher facilities in the multi-national Ariane project. The United Kingdom became a space power independently following a single payload insertion into orbit from Australia.

Twelve countries and one inter-governmental organization (ESA) presently have a proven orbital launch capability, as of March 2025Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..[lower-alpha 1] The former Soviet Union and the United Kingdom formerly had such an independent capability. In all cases where a country has conducted independent human spaceflights (as of 2021, three — China, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the United States), these launches were preceded by independent uncrewed launch capability.

The race to launch the first satellite was closely contested by the Soviet Union and the United States, and was the beginning of the Space Race. The launching of satellites, while still contributing to national prestige, is a significant economic activity as well, with public and private rocket systems competing for launches, using cost and reliability as selling points.

File:Sputnik asm.jpg
Replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957

List of first orbital launches by country

Countries like Italy are not included since they have not yet developed an orbital rocket from scratch; i.e., an orbital rocket that was designed and engineered in its entirety in the country in question. Template:Sticky header

Order Country[lower-alpha 1] Sector Satellite Rocket Location Date (UTC)
1 Template:FlagcountryTemplate:Refn Governmental Sputnik 1 Sputnik-PS Baikonur, Soviet Union (today Kazakhstan) 4 October 1957
2 Template:Flagcountry Explorer 1 Juno I Cape Canaveral, United States 1 February 1958
3 Template:Flagicon FranceTemplate:Refn Astérix Diamant A CIEES/Hammaguir, Algeria 26 November 1965
4 Template:Flagcountry Ohsumi Lambda-4S Uchinoura, Japan 11 February 1970
5 Template:Flagcountry Dong Fang Hong 1 Long March 1 Jiuquan, China 24 April 1970
6 Template:Flagcountry[lower-alpha 2] Prospero Black Arrow Woomera, Australia 28 October 1971
— Template:Flagdeco European Space Agency[lower-alpha 3] CAT-1 (Obélix[3]) Ariane 1 Kourou, French Guiana 24 December 1979
7 Template:Flagcountry Rohini 1 (RS1) SLV Sriharikota, India 18 July 1980
8 Template:Flagcountry Ofeq 1 Shavit Palmachim, Israel 19 September 1988
— Template:Flagcountry[lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5] Strela-3 (x6, Russian) Tsyklon-3 Plesetsk, Soviet Union (today Russia) 28 September 1991
— Template:Flagcountry[lower-alpha 4] Kosmos 2175 Soyuz-U Plesetsk, Russia 21 January 1992
9 Template:Flagcountry[lower-alpha 6] Omid Safir-1A Semnan, Iran 2 February 2009
10 Template:Flagicon Italy LARES, ALMASat-1, Xatcobeo, UniCubeSat-GG, Robusta, e-st@r, Goliat, PW-Sat, MaSat-1 Vega Kourou, French Guiana 3 February 2012
11 Template:Flagcountry Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 Unha-3 Sohae, North Korea 12 December 2012Template:Refn
12 Template:Flagcountry STSat-2C Naro-1 Goheung, South Korea 30 January 2013

Partial contributions to orbital launch systems

Two countries, Italy and New Zealand, have contributed in the creation or continuation of orbital launch systems.

Order Country Sector Satellite Rocket Location Date (UTC)
1 Template:Flagicon Italy Governmental San Marco 1 Scout-X4 San Marco platform, Kenya 15 December 1964
2 Template:Flagicon New Zealand Private Humanity Star Electron Mahia LC-1A, New Zealand 21 January 2018

Notes

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  1. ↑ a b The eleven countries and successor states/union indicated in bold retain orbital launch capability.
  2. ↑ The United Kingdom only self-launched a single satellite (in 1971) and that from a commonwealth (Australian) spaceport. Later it joined the European Space Agency.
  3. ↑ The European Space Agency developed the Ariane rocket family (the second European launcher program after the failed Europa rocket program under ELDO) operating from its Guiana Space Centre spaceport (first successful launch on 24 December 1979 when Ariane 1 launcher placed the technological capsule CAT-1 on orbit). ESA signatories at the time of first launch were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Private/public companies and/or governments of these countries (with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom) became shareholders in the commercial company Arianespace dealing with production, operation, and marketing. Later Norway became an ESA member and Arianespace shareholder. Additional subsequent ESA member states are Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Romania.
  4. ↑ a b Cite error: Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".
  5. ↑ Ukraine provided its own space launcher to Russia and did not use its own space launcher to put satellites in orbit (first Ukrainian satellite is Sich-1, launched on August 31, 1995 by Ukrainian Tsyklon-3 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia).
  6. ↑ Although it has signed the Outer Space Treaty, Iran is the only space launch capable nation that has not ratified the treaty.

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Other launches and projects

The above list includes confirmed satellite launches with rockets produced by the launching country, like Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom or the United States. Lists with differing criteria might include the following launches:

Failed launches

Launches of non-indigenous launch vehicles

Some countries have no self-developed rocket systems, but have provided their spaceports for launches of their own and foreign satellites on foreign launchers:

Privately developed launch vehicles

Abandoned projects

  • Template:Flagicon/Template:Flagcountry was developing larger designs in the Aggregat series as early as 1940. A combination of A9 to A12 components could have produced orbital capability as early as 1947 if work had continued. Further preliminary development of numerous rocket space launchers and re-usable launch systems (Sänger II, etc.) took place after WWII, although these were never realized as national or European projects. Also, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the private German company OTRAG tried to develop low-cost commercial space launchers. Only the sub-orbital tests of the first prototypes of the rockets were carried out.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • Template:Flagcountry did not proceed with a 1946 proposal to develop German V-2 technology into the "Megaroc" system to be launched in 1949. The UK also developed the Black Arrow rocket system and successfully launched a satellite in 1971, shortly after the program had been cancelled.
  • Template:Flagcountry had developed the gun-based space launchers Martlet and GLO as the joint Canadian-American Project HARP in the 1960s. The rockets were never tested. In fact, in different periods, they worked in cooperation with Australia, Brazil, South Korea and the United Kingdom.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • Template:Flagcountry developed the space launcher RSA-3 in the late 1980s in collaboration with Israel, years after Brazil and Argentina launched their first satellites. The rocket was tested three times without a satellite payload in 1989 and 1990. The program was postponed and later canceled in 1994.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • Template:Flagicon Iraq built and tested the Al-Abid, a three-stage space launch vehicle without a payload or its upper two stages on 5 December 1989. The rocket's design had a clustered first stage composed of five modified scud rockets strapped together and a single scud rocket as the second stage in addition to a SA-2 liquid-fueled rocket engine as the third stage. The video tape of a partial launch attempt which was retrieved by UN weapons inspectors, later surfaced showing that the rocket prematurely exploded 45 seconds after its launch.[20][21][22]
  • Template:Flagcountry previous attempts at developing space launcher based on their Condor missile were scrapped in 1993.[23][24]
  • Template:Flagcountry The VLS-1 was cancelled after decades of development and high expenditures with poor results and a failed association with Ukraine that slowed the program for years.[25]
  • Template:Flagcountry tried to develop space launcher as part of its various ballistic missile programs in the second half of the 20th century. In different periods, they worked either independently or in cooperation with Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Iraq and North Korea.[26]
  • Template:Flagcountry developed the space launcher Capricornio (Capricorn) in the 1990s. The rocket was related to the Condor missile from Argentina and its test, scheduled for 1999/2000, was not conducted. As a result, in different periods, they worked in cooperation with Japan and the United States.[27]
  • Template:Flagcountry Swiss Space Systems company planned to develop the micro satellite launcher-spaceplane SOAR by 2018 but went bankrupt. Thus, in different periods, they worked in cooperation with Chile, Poland and Ukraine

Other projects

Satellite operators

Many other countries, such as Mexico, Poland, Chile, Japan and India, launched their own satellites on one of the foreign launchers listed above, the first being British owned and operated; American-built satellite Ariel 1, which was launched by a US rocket in April 1962. In September 1962, the Canadian satellite, Alouette-1, was launched by a US rocket, but unlike Ariel 1, it was constructed by Canada.

See also

References

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  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ UNMOVIC report, United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, p. 434 ff.
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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External links

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