With SpaceX’s successful launch of the Starlink Group 12-6 mission on Tuesday, the curtain came down on a year that has seen a record 259 orbital launches from around the world. This has continued a trend over the last few years of ever-increasing numbers of launches driven by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch cadence and increased activity in China’s commercial space sector.
2024 saw the retirement of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV rocket and the original version of Arianespace’s Vega, along with the maiden flights of several new rockets including Ariane 6, ULA’s next-generation Vulcan, and China’s Chang Zheng 12.
The increase in the number of orbital launches taking place worldwide has been dramatic and abrupt, with 2024’s total more than double that seen in 2019 and 2020 when the current rise began. Despite the high number of launches, only five failed to reach orbit with a sixth launch failing after reaching orbit, and two partial failures.
There were nine crewed orbital missions launched in 2024, with SpaceX’s Dragon flying two Commercial Crew missions to the International Space Station for NASA and another visit to the outpost for the commercial Axiom-3 mission. Dragon also flew the free-flying Polaris Dawn mission, during which Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis became the first commercial astronauts to perform a spacewalk.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule flew its first crewed mission but helium leaks affecting its thrusters left NASA without confidence that it would be able to return its crew safely to Earth. After weeks of troubleshooting, the spacecraft returned to Earth without its astronauts, who are remaining aboard the ISS until Dragon’s Crew 9 mission returns home next year.
Two Russian Soyuz missions were also flown to the Space Station, while China carried out two Shenzhou missions to rotate crew aboard its Tiangong Space Station.
2024 was a busy year for Lunar exploration, with four missions attempting to land on the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully landed its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) in January, and the following month Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C spacecraft became the first commercial lander to reach the Moon successfully as part of the IM-1 mission. Both of these landers came to rest at unplanned orientations, with SLIM nosing over and IM-1 falling onto its side, despite which they were able to complete their planned objectives. China’s Chang’e-6 became the first mission to return samples from the far side, however, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander encountered problems shortly after launch and did not reach the Moon.
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission lifted off to begin its journey to Jupiter, with ESA’s Hera also starting its mission to the asteroid Didymos. On Mars, Ingenuity’s mission — which had already far exceeded its planned objectives — came to an end after its 72nd flight as a result of damage to the helicopter’s rotor blades. In December, the Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun.
United States
For the third consecutive year, the United States carried out the most orbital launches of any country, with 154 rockets lifting off — including U.S. company Rocket Lab’s operations from New Zealand. SpaceX has been leading this charge with its Falcon 9 rocket, which flew more orbital missions in 2024 than all other rockets worldwide combined.
A total of 132 Falcon 9 and two Falcon Heavy missions were launched, with many of the Falcon 9 launches dedicated to deploying SpaceX’s Starlink communications satellites. Others carried a wide array of payloads to orbit including four Crew Dragon missions: Crew-8, Crew-9, Axiom 3, and Polaris Dawn. Two uncrewed Dragon missions, CRS-30 and CRS-31, carried cargo to the International Space Station, while Falcon 9 also launched a pair of Cygnus resupply missions to the ISS on behalf of Northrop Grumman.
July saw a Starlink launch reach a lower-than-planned orbit after the premature cutoff of the second stage engine. This was the first in-flight failure for a Falcon 9 mission in nine years and over 300 missions, since the loss of the CRS-7 Dragon mission in June 2015.
Falcon Heavy launched the GOES-U (GOES 19) weather satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Europa Clipper mission for NASA. SpaceX has also passed key milestones with Starship development and testing, flying four near-orbital tests from Starbase in Boca Chica. These included the first successful catch of the Super Heavy booster using the launch tower’s chopsticks during Flight 5 in October, and on-target water landings in the Indian Ocean during Flight 5 and the subsequent Flight 6 in November for the Ship itself.
SpaceX’s launch cadence shows no sign of abating and 2025 is likely to be even busier than 2024, with the company’s first launch of the year expected to be of the Thuraya 4-NGS communications satellite on Jan. 2. Starship Flight 7 is also currently scheduled for the first half of January.
Rocket Lab accounted for the second-most launches among U.S. operators in 2024, with its Electron rocket flying 14 orbital missions. Thirteen of these were carried out from the company’s launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, with one from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. Two suborbital launches of a variant, Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE), were also flown from Wallops Island.
2024 was a significant year for United Launch Alliance (ULA), which made five launches over the course of the year. The first of these was the maiden flight of the company’s next-generation Vulcan rocket, which flew on Jan. 8 with Astrobotic’s Peregrine 1 Lunar lander aboard. This was deployed successfully, although the spacecraft subsequently malfunctioned and was unable to complete its mission. Vulcan completed a second successful test flight in October with a dummy payload, reaching its planned orbit despite an issue with the nozzle of one of its solid rocket boosters during ascent.
April saw the retirement of ULA’s Delta IV Heavy, with its final launch carrying out the NROL-70 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
In June, ULA conducted its first human spaceflight launch, an Atlas V deploying Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for its Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission with astronauts Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams aboard for what was intended to be a short visit to the ISS to test the spacecraft ahead of future Commercial Crew flights. Despite a successful launch the mission later ran into problems and Starliner eventually returned to Earth without its crew, who remain aboard the Space Station and will return with SpaceX’s Crew 9 mission next year.
As well as being its first crewed launch, the Starliner mission also marked the 100th flight of the Atlas V. Another Atlas launch in July deployed the USSF-51 payload for the US Space Force, in the rocket’s last national security mission. ULA is winding down production of the Atlas V, which will be phased out in favor of Vulcan over the next few years.
Vulcan on its launch pad ahead of the Cert-2 mission. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
With Vulcan’s certification flights now complete, 2025 will see it begin flying operational missions as ULA steps up its transition to the new rocket. At least two Atlas V missions are also planned, one with the ViaSat 3.2 communications satellite, and another to begin deployment of Amazon’s Kuiper broadband constellation.
The only other U.S. launcher to fly in 2024 was Firefly’s Alpha vehicle, whose Noise of Summer mission in July deployed a cluster of small satellites in a demonstration mission for NASA. This was carried out successfully, marking Firefly’s return to flight after an anomaly on its previous mission at the end of 2023.
Blue Origin resumed crewed suborbital flights with its New Shepard rocket, which had been suspended since the rocket failed during an uncrewed science launch in 2022. Three missions, each with a crew of six, were flown. In October an uncrewed launch was made using a new booster and capsule, RSS Kármán Line, named after the internationally recognized demarcation of the edge of space, an altitude 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Virgin Galactic also flew two crewed suborbital missions using its SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity spacecraft, which was retired from commercial missions after its June flight. SpaceShipTwo missions typically reach altitudes of between 85 and 90 kilometers, meeting an alternative definition of space that has previously been used by NASA, but do not cross the Kármán Line.
As well as its suborbital missions, Blue Origin has been progressing toward the first flight of its New Glenn rocket for orbital spaceflight. The most recent — and final — phase of testing ahead of launch took place at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) over the last few months, culminating in a static fire of the fully-integrated rocket on Friday, Dec. 27. The launch is currently scheduled for the night of Jan. 5/6 and will carry a demonstration payload to orbit with the first stage due to attempt landing on a barge downrange of the launch site.
China
China carried out 68 orbital launches in 2024, which marks the first year that the legacy Chang Zheng 2, 3, and 4 family of rockets has not accounted for a majority of the country’s launches.
A Chang Zheng 2C launches the Aiyinsitan Tanzhen (Einstein Probe) mission
These vehicles still made a significant contribution to the total number of missions, with seven CZ-2C, nine CZ-2D, two CZ-2F/G, eight CZ-3B, four CZ-4B, and two CZ-4C rockets launching from across the Jiuquan, Taiyuan, and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers. These launches carried an array of scientific, commercial, and military satellites, including the Aiyinsitan Tanzhen, or Einstein Probe, a collaboration between the China Academy of Sciences, the European Space Agency, and the Max Planck Institute. Deployed in January, this x-ray observatory aims to observe emissions from black holes, neutron stars, and supernovae.
Another CZ-2C launch in March carried the Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) mission, which aimed to test in-space navigation by placing two small satellites into orbit around the Moon, with the rocket aided by a Yuanzheng-1S (YZ-1S) upper stage. A malfunction with the upper stage left the spacecraft in a lower-than-planned orbit, but they were still able to reach their destination under their own power.
The two CZ-2F/G launches carried crewed Shenzhou missions to the Tiangong Space Station.
The newer series of Chang Zheng rockets had a busy year. The heavy-lifting CZ-5 flew two missions, including the launch of Chang’e-6 in May. This successfully landed in the Apollo crater basin on the far side of the Moon, before returning a sample to Earth in June. In addition to the two CZ-5 launches, a third mission using the two-stage CZ-5B configuration with an add-on YZ-2 upper stage was flown in December, deploying the first 10 spacecraft for the GuoWang constellation of communications satellites.
Chang’e-6 on the Lunar surface. (Credit: CNSA)
The CZ-6 family of rockets made a total of eight launches across the CZ-6, CZ-6A, and the new CZ-6C variants. The CZ-6C, which made its debut in May, is a two-stage version of the larger CZ-6A. A pair of CZ-7 launches in January and November sent Tianzhou spacecraft to resupply the Tiangong station, while two CZ-7A launches deployed geosynchronous military satellites in June and August. A CZ-8 launch in March deployed the Queqiao 2 communications satellite to support Chang’e-6’s mission to the Moon. Finally, November saw the introduction of a new medium-capacity rocket, CZ-12.
In the commercial sector, ExPace’s Kuaizhou (KZ) family of rockets flew five missions, including the debut of a new rocket, KZ-1A Pro. Galactic Energy also made five launches with its Gushenxing-1 (GSX-1), which flew twice from Jiuquan and three times from a barge in the Yellow Sea; the seaborne launches using the modified GSX-1S variant of the rocket.
Other seaborne launches included a pair of Jielong-3 rockets and the maiden flight of OrienSpace’s Yinli-1, which took place on Jan. 11.
CAS Space’s Lijian-1 (LJ-1) rocket made four launches from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The fourth of these took place on Dec. 27, and was China’s final launch of 2024, but failed due to an attitude control problem early in third stage flight. A July launch of iSpace’s Shuang Quxian 1 (SQX-1) also failed to reach orbit with an anomaly occurring around the time of third and fourth stage separation.
In November, Landspace’s upgraded ZhuQue-2E (ZQ-2E) rocket made its first launch.
Russia
Russia made 17 orbital launches in 2024, with the Soyuz rocket flying 15 of these. The other two were flown by the newer Angara vehicle, including that type’s first launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in April. Vostochny, which has been used by Soyuz since 2016, was opened to provide an alternative launch site for civilian missions from Russian soil, reducing the country’s reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Vostochny’s lower latitude compared to the primarily military Plesetsk Cosmodrome will allow Angara to fly geosynchronous missions with less of a penalty to its performance.
Angara’s launch from Vostochny used the heavy-lift Angara-A5 configuration with an Orion upper stage — derived from the Blok DM-03 — to carry a mass simulator into orbit. The type’s other flight deployed a military payload from Plesetsk in September, via the smaller Angara-A1.2/AM configuration.
The first Angara launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. (Credit: Roskosmos)
Three Soyuz launches also took place from Vostochny, deploying the Meteor-M No.2-4 weather satellite, a pair of Ionosfera-M research satellites, and the Kondor-FKA No.2 remote sensing satellites as their primary payloads. Two further civilian remote sensing missions were launched from Baikonur, with the Resurs-P No.4 and No.5 satellites deployed by Souyz-2-1b launchers. Four military Soyuz launches took place from Plesetsk.
Baikonur continued to support Russia’s human spaceflight program, with two crewed Soyuz-MS missions and four automated Progress resupply spacecraft launching to the International Space Station.
2024 was the first year since the introduction of the Proton rocket in 1965 in which that rocket has not made at least one flight. Proton’s most recent mission was in March 2023 and although the type is slated to be replaced by Angara-A5, it still has plenty of missions on its books. Potential Proton launches for 2025 include deploying the clandestine Ekvator communications satellite — which has been speculated to be under development for Iran — as well as the Elektro-L No.5 weather satellite.
The most recently reported date for the debut of Russia’s new Soyuz-5 rocket — also known variously as Irtysh, Fenix, and Sunkar — was the end of December 2025, but this was announced over a year ago so it will most likely not happen next year. One debut that could take place is that of the Rokot-M, a modernized version of the small Rokot launcher derived from the UR-100 missile. Rokot-M features a new guidance system with Russian-built components replacing ones that were previously manufactured in Ukraine. It had previously been expected to fly in 2024, but a launch date has not yet been announced.
Europe
European launch provider Arianespace seems to be coming toward the end of a difficult transition phase that it has been in over the last few years. Following the retirement of its Ariane 5 rocket in 2023, the company’s Ariane 6 finally lifted off on its maiden flight in July. While the test flight was not completely successful — a planned restart of the second stage engine could not be accomplished — it has given Arianespace confidence to proceed with a customer payload on the rocket’s next launch in 2025. This is currently slated for the end of February, carrying the CSO-3 imaging satellite for the French military.
Ariane 6 lifts off on its maiden flight. (Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja)
Arianespace carried out two other missions in 2024 using its smaller Vega family of rockets. The first was in September, marking the final flight of the original version of Vega. The second took place at the start of December and saw its replacement, Vega-C, return to flight almost two years after the failure of its previous mission. Both the September and December launches carried replacement Sentinel satellites for the Copernicus program, beginning the replenishment of that project’s core constellation.
Arianespace will enter 2025 under new leadership, with CEO Stéphane Israël’s departure at the end of December. Israël, who had led Arianespace since 2013, will be succeeded by David Cavaillolès, a former ministerial advisor to the French government on space policy who more recently worked in senior roles at IT services company Capgemini.
With Arianespace’s recent difficulties, the European Space Agency (ESA) has turned to the commercial market to launch more of its missions. EarthCARE, a climate science mission in partnership with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was deployed by a SpaceX Falcon 9 in May. The Hera mission to study binary asteroid (65803) Didymos was deployed by another Falcon 9 in October and the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched ESA’s Proba-3 formation-flying experiment aboard a PSLV rocket in December.
A number of small satellite launchers continue to be under development in Europe, with 2024 seeing some reach milestones while others encountered setbacks.
SaxaVord Spaceport, located in the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland, was granted its range license by the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in April. This paved the way for German company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) to begin engine tests of its RFA One rocket the following month, but in August the rocket’s first stage exploded during a static fire attempt.
UPDATE on our S1 test anomaly!
Our first stage is gone – but we have collected a significant amount of data and film footage. After reviewing it, we want to share some insights into the technical analysis, preliminary conclusions and our next steps
pic.twitter.com/FnGHjTCS2g
— Rocket Factory Augsburg (@rfa_space) August 23, 2024
In December, UK startup Orbex announced that it was abandoning plans to build its launch site in Sutherland on the north coast of Scotland, instead opting to launch its rocket, Prime, from SaxaVord. The first mission is currently slated for 2025. Two more startups: the UK’s Skyrora and French company Latitude, are targeting maiden launches in 2025 from SaxaVord, with their Skyrora-XL and Zephyr rockets respectively.
India
India launched five orbital missions in 2024; three aboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), one using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk.II and one using the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). The launch of the X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) aboard a PSLV-DL at 03:40 UTC on Jan. 1 was the first launch of 2024 worldwide.
A GSLV Mk.II launch in February successfully deployed the INSAT-3DS communications satellite, while the SSLV made its third demonstration flight in August, deploying Microsat-2C, a small Earth-imaging spacecraft.
After a PSLV-XL launch in early December to deploy ESA’s Proba-3 mission, the type’s third and final launch of the year came on Dec. 30 with the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX); a pair of small satellites which will demonstrate on-orbit rendezvous and docking as India progresses with its human spaceflight program.
Another significant step for this program occurred on Dec. 20, when the stacking of the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan-G1 mission — the first uncrewed test flight of the spacecraft which will carry India’s astronauts into space — began at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. This is expected to lift off in early 2025 and will be the first in a series of tests before crewed missions can commence no earlier than 2026.
Japan
Japan made seven orbital launches in 2024. The new H3 rocket developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) reached orbit in February at the second attempt, 11 months after falling short on its maiden flight. It has since launched twice more, carrying the ALOS-4 remote sensing satellite in July and the DSN-3 communications satellite in November. MHI also carried out two successful missions with its older H-IIA rocket in 2024, deploying reconnaissance satellites for the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center.
The H3 rocket returns to flight. (Credit: JAXA)
Two launches by commercial operator Space One of its KAIROS (Kii-Based Advanced and Instant Rocket System) rocket failed to reach orbit. These were the first orbital launches to be attempted by a commercially developed rocket in Japan. The first launch took place in March but was destroyed a few seconds after liftoff when its automated flight termination system detected that the rocket was producing less thrust than expected; the second launch was made in December but saw the thrust vector control (TVC) system on the first stage fail a few seconds before burnout.
The SLIM mission, which had launched in September 2023 and arrived in orbit of the Moon in December of that year, touched down on the lunar surface on Jan. 19. Despite some issues with the orientation of the lander, it survived through three lunar nights, with the last signals received from the spacecraft on April 29.
Looking ahead to 2025, the final H-IIA launch is expected to occur toward the start of the next Japanese financial year, which begins on April 1. This will carry a climate research satellite for JAXA.
The successes of 2024 pave the way for what could be a busy 2025 for H3, which has several key missions lined up. Until now, all of the rocket’s flights have used the H3-22 configuration which features a two-engine first stage and a pair of solid rocket motors. A test flight of the H3-30 configuration, designed to carry lighter payloads using a three-engine first stage and no boosters, is scheduled for 2025. The heavier H3-24 configuration which uses a two-engine stage but with four boosters, is also expected to make its debut.
2025 will also see an H3 launch the first flight of the HTV-X cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. A successor to the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) — also known as Kounotori — which flew from 2009 until 2020, HTV-X will deliver supplies and experiments to the astronauts aboard the Space Station. This mission is currently slated for September.
A new version of the small Epsilon rocket, Epsilon-S, is currently under development by JAXA and IHI Aerospace. This suffered a setback in late November when the vehicle’s second stage exploded during a test firing. Its previous test in July 2023 had also ended in failure. Epsilon-S could fly in 2025, although its launch date is under review following the failure and it is currently unclear what impact this will have on its already-delayed schedule.
Rest of the World
Iran had a bumper year in 2024 with four successful orbital launches. The Qaem-100 rocket reached orbit for the first time at its second attempt in January, deploying the Suraya satellite. A few days later the liquid-fuelled Simorgh rocket finally achieved its first successful launch following a run of at least five consecutive failures. Simorgh carried Mehda, a technology demonstration satellite, and a pair of CubeSats.
Iran’s Simorgh rocket lifts off on its first successful mission. (Credit: Fars News Agency)
Another Qaem launch in September placed the Chamran 1 satellite into orbit. In December Simorgh completed another mission with Saman-1, an experimental space tug or upper stage. This launch carried a small satellite named Fakhr-1, with reports suggesting that Saman-1 was also used to deploy another satellite into a higher orbit.
North Korea attempted a launch at the end of May, with the Malligyong-1-1 reconnaissance satellite. This flew aboard a new rocket which appears to have been purpose-built for satellite launches, utilizing kerosene propellant and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The name of this rocket has not been announced and was not included in the Korea Central News Agency’s announcement of the launch, which failed to reach orbit. An explosion was observed in the sky above the launch site shortly after the rocket lifted off.
Israel and South Korea, the other countries with operational orbit-capable launch vehicles, are not known to have attempted any orbital launches in 2024.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches on one of its last missions of the year, with Starlink Group 11-3 on Dec. 29. Credit: SpaceX)
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