2022 was a watershed year for Earth-to-Space launches, with 180 successful launches, 44 more than in 2021.

The US has the lion’s share with 76 launches, followed by China with 62, Russia with 21, New Zealand with 9 and Europe with 5. Elon Musk’s US space company Space X and the Chinese government were the carriers with the most launches.

The corresponding analysis of the launches was made by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States, reports Nature.

Last year, Space X sent an average of one rocket into space every six days. A total of 61 successful launches were made, which has become an annual record for Soviet R-7 missiles since 1980. Most of the company’s launches have been commercial satellites, including for its own Starlink communications network, which now has more than 3,300 satellites and is the largest ever built.

China had nine more successful launches last year than in 2021. Many of them were state-owned, but the number of rockets launched by the country’s private companies is steadily increasing. China’s launches in 2022 were almost three times as many as Russia’s, as, according to McDowell, “China is replacing Russia as the No. 2 space power.”

The number of successful launches in Europe has plummeted from 15 in 2021 to just five in 2022. This is partly because the European Space Agency (ESA) suspended launches of Russian-made Soyuz rockets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On the other hand, South Zealand had a record number of launches last year thanks to Rocket Lab, an American company that uses the country to send satellites into space.

A new record is expected in 2023 as SpaceX alone plans 100 launches.

Source: RES-IPE