Straight to the data: LIST OF ALL LAUNCHES BY LV FAMILY
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 data files consist of the following auxiliary files which make precise
the field entries in the launch lists:
In addition, a file of references to the launch times is provided.
This database forms the background data for a comprehensive launch list of 70780 launches. The launches include 5741 orbital launch attempts, 28500 suborbital launches, and 36539 endoatmospheric flights