GCAT: General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects

Jonathan C. McDowell

Launches

Launch Lists

GCAT Release 1.5.7 (2024 Oct 18) | Data Update 2024 Dec 13

Introduction


The JSR Launch Vehicle Database is an attempt to provide a complete listing of all types of space launch vehicle, both suborbital and orbital, and indicate relationships between them. An attempt has been made to estimate numerical parameters even when they are not available in the literature, on the grounds that some reasonable estimate is better than none and gives a general idea of the vehicle's size and power.


The database gives launch times in UTC to the nearest second where available. It is the only online source for most of these launch times. An accurate launch time is important if you want to compare trajectories of different launches (did that missile launch pass close to this satellite?).


In the database:


The primary access to the database is through launch lists for each `family' of rocket. A family groups together launch vehicles with the same basic first stage design.


For each launch a citation (LTCite) is given for the existence of the launch and the source of the launch time. Occasional secondary citations are given for interest; I have not provided a detailed citation trail for the values in other columns of the tables. You have been warned. The cryptic citations are somewhat expanded in the Launch Time References file.


I acknowledge the help of Joe King and Pat Ross at NSSDC, who provided access to the old World Data Center/Rockets and Satellites launch database, and Joel Powell, Jean-Jacques Serra, Vladimir Agapov, Phillip Clark, Asif Siddiqi, Peter Hunter, Jacques Tiziou and the late Geoff Perry for sharing data over the many years it took to assemble this information. Mark Cleary at Patrick AFB, Roger Launius at NASA HQ, Elaine Liston at the KSC archives, and Jeff Geiger at Vandenberg were among those who provided useful data. Mark Wade has also caught a number of inconsistencies in the designation system, which I've fixed, and Doug Burke found numerous formatting errors. Above all, kudos to Carl Rigg who once again spent several months painstakingly comparing my data with his own extensive and independently constructed lists, and caught a large number of typos and errors. Thanks to Carl, I believe that this database is now as reliable a source for launch times, launch sites and vehicle types as any currently in existence. I also thank Ulrich Brocks who has scoured on-line newspapers and other resources to track down additional launch times and details.



Launch Lists By Family


Launch Lists By Designation


Summary Count Totals of Launches