Successes and Failures of U.S. Space Launch

This data repository visualizes the success and failures of the major American rocket families between the first launch of the Atlas V in 2002 and the end of 2019.

We encourage corrections, additions, and suggestions. Please direct all messages to aerospace@csis.org.

Methodology

This data repository utilizes publicly available launch data, including Gunter’s Space Page (GSP)¹, SpaceX’s launch manifest², and the United Launch Alliance’s launch manifest³ to collect the number of space launches per rocket by year.

This data repository considers partial failures as failures. For a launch to be designated a failure, its payload must have failed to reach its intended orbit. Missions where the rocket failed but the payload reached its destination, like Falcon 9’s October 8, 2012 launch, are considered successes in this repository.

The rockets included in this repository were chosen because they make up the bulk of America’s launches since 2002. Despite relatively low launch numbers, “Heavy” variants of the rockets were included to illustrate their growing usage.