LAUNCHES AT A GLANCE: Satellite & Space Probe Launches

30 June - 30 December 2022

We note that the full list of Spacecraft Launches is maintained at the COSPAR website Https://Cosparhq.cnes.fr/Launchlist/

Here we provide a selective summary of the launches that occurred between the end of June to the end of December 2022.

This period saw 1269 craft launched into space. This included spacecraft from 24 countries and the EU. The countries included Angola, Bhutan, China, Finland, France, Great Britain, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, USA, Zimbabwe.

The figures are dominated by the USA Falcon 9 Starlink launches from both the Kennedy Space Centre and Vandenberg AFB on July 7, 11, 17, 22 and 24, August 10, 12, 19, 28 and 31, September 5, 11, 19 and 24, October 5, 20 and 28, and December 17 and 28.

Significant numbers of spacecraft were also launched by China, in particular the Jilin-1 high resolution and infrared imaging multi-spacecraft launches on August 10, November 16 and December 9, by Great Britain, with OneWeb multiple launches on October 22 and December 8, and by a variety of Russian launches.

The only crewed launch in the period was on October 5 when the Crew Dragon 5 spacecraft was launched to the ISS. Among the countries listed above, there are some notable countries that have emerging interests in spacecraft exploitation, such as Moldova, with the launch its first satellite, TUM- nanSAT, listed as a student nano-satellite from the Technical University of Moldova, launched from the ISS on August 12, and Zimbabwe, with its first spacecraft, ZIMSAT, also launched from the ISS on December 5.

In all, over 20 different launchers were used in the period, ranging from the USA Falcon 9, Atlas V, Delta 4H and Electron launchers, to the Russian Soyuz 2, the Chinese Long March 11 and Ceres-1 rockets to the Indian PSLV-CA and GSLV Mk III launchers.

The European Ariane 5 and Vega C launchers were also used, as well as the South Korean Nuri vehicle. In addition, the Chinese Jielong-3 launches were notable because of their sea-platform launches and the LauncherOne rockets, because of their horizontal launches carried by a Boeing 747 from the Mojave Desert.

Of the larger payloads, the European Meteosat 13 launch using an Ariane 5 ECA on December 13 and the NOAA 21 weather spacecraft launch using an Atlas V on the 10th of November, are notable. Finally, the launch aboard the new Space Launch System rocket on 16 November, took the unmanned Orion capsule of the Artemis-1 mission to a lunar retrograde orbit, returning to Earth 24 days later.