About this chart race
The United States answers Sputnik fast. The Soviet Union opens the series with 2 launches in 1957, but the Americans put up 23 in 1958 and stay in front for nine years. In 1967 the Soviet Union takes the lead with 74 launches to America's 61, and then holds first place for a quarter of a century.
The Soviet programme reaches a scale nothing matched for the next forty years: 108 launches in 1982, against 18 for the United States that same year. At its peak the USSR was launching a rocket roughly every three days.
The Soviet series ends in 1991 with 61 launches - the state dissolved, and Russia enters the chart separately in 1992 with 55. The two are deliberately kept apart here rather than merged, because they are different states. Over the next two decades neither Russia nor the United States can hold the lead: it changes hands six more times between 1996 and 2016.
China launches for the first time in 1970 and reaches first place for the first time in 2018, with 39 launches to America's 31, holding the top spot for four years. Then the United States pulls away at a rate the chart has never seen: 78 in 2022, 107 in 2023, 144 in 2024 and 181 in 2025 - more than the Soviet Union managed in its record year, and roughly double China's 93. Russia finishes 2025 on 17. One note on method: these are orbital launch attempts, successful or failed, credited to the state of the launch operator. Arianespace flights from Kourou are therefore counted under France, which is why France's 350 launches are the largest total outside the American, Soviet, Russian and Chinese programmes.
This animated ranking shows how orbital launches changed across 14 series between 1957 and 2025. The bars re-order themselves as the years advance, so overtakes are visible as they happen rather than hidden inside a table. Use the list on the left to choose exactly who competes, drag the slider to jump to any year, or open the table view to read the underlying numbers.
As of 2025, United States leads with 181 launches.
Included in this race
United States, Soviet Union, China, Russia, New Zealand, France, Japan, India, Iran, North Korea, Europe (ESA), South Korea, Italy, Israel.
Source
Data from Jonathan McDowell, GCAT General Catalog of Space Objects. Every figure shown comes from this source — nothing is estimated or generated.
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