USA vs Russia: Who Launches More Rockets? 🇺🇸🇷🇺
USA or Russia: who launches more rockets? Orbital launches per year (by the country of the rocket), year by year to 2026.
USA: first in 1957; 29 (2000) → 177 (2025) → 162 (2026, estimate)
Russia: first in 1957; 32 (2000) → 17 (2025) → 16 (2026, estimate)
What the number means: 100 launches a year = about 2 rockets every week.
SpaceX made the USA the biggest launcher by far: its rockets land and fly again, so launching got much cheaper.
Orbital launch = a rocket launch that tries to put something into orbit around the Earth (or beyond). Counted for the country of the organisation that launches the rocket, failures included.
Terms used:
- orbital launch: a rocket launch that tries to reach orbit
- orbit: the path of a spacecraft around the Earth
- estimate: 2026 is not over: the numbers so far scaled up to a full year
Data: Jonathan McDowell, General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (GCAT, planet4589.org), launch and satellite lists updated 29 Oct 2026. Russia includes the Soviet Union (1957-1991). 2026 per-year numbers are estimates for the full year (data up to 27 October scaled to 365 days).
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