tgz files: sdb.tar.gz (indexes) and launch.tar.gz (launches)
Straight to the data: LIST OF ALL LAUNCHES BY LV FAMILY
Revised edition, 2010 Oct 28: Added 1950s Soviet missiles from Asif Siddiqi
Revised edition, 2011 Nov 17: general update
Revised edition, 2014 Aug 25: Added many new Soviet ICBM launches provided by a Russian source; general update
Revised edition, 2014 Oct 6: Added a number of launches from El Arenosillo, Spain, and assorted launch times for US missiles; revised analysis of locations of Redstone launches.
Update 2014 Nov 11 with more data on Soviet launches.
Update 2015 Jan 12, Jul 16
Update 2015 Dec 22 with new USSR launch time data from Andrey Krasil'nikov
Update 2016 Dec 30
Update 2017 Sep 7, 2017 Dec 28
Revised edition 2020 Jun 14; changed launch site codes
Update 2020 Aug 9. Final version? To be superseded by GCAT (planet4589.org/space/gcat/)
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. However, I have not always done a serious search to get the best available values, and you should not prefer the figures given here to those in other sources. Indeed, the reader should be warned that all values are likely to have 10 percent errors, and those indicated with a question-mark have at least 20 percent errors, and often are merely ROM or WAG estimates. Note that apogees in particular are often estimates. The LTCite citations apply only to the launch times; 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.
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.
In the 2014 edition I must also thank Ulrich Brocks who has scoured on-line newspapers and other resources to track down additional launch times and details.
The launch vehicle database consists of the following auxiliary files:
This database forms the background data for a comprehensive launch list of 73034 launches. The launches include 6018 orbital launch attempts, 29455 suborbital launches, and 37561 endoatmospheric flights