A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROCKET LAUNCHES

Over 5,000 orbital rocket launches from nearly 30 different sites are depicted, starting in 1957 when Sputnik became the first artificial object in orbit.

Launches to Show All Launches Moon Venus Mars Outer Solar System Space Shuttle SpaceX Launch Log Clear

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Created by Nathaniel Guy, Sonja Khan, and Nicholas Reiter.

Map code adapted from techslides & slider code from turban. Vertical scrollbar code adapted from Tim Holman. Design consulting by Alice Fox.

Rocket launch data for this visualization is sourced from CelesTrak's SATCAT, the NSSDC master catalog, and Jonathan McDowell's launchlog.