This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2016) |
This article constitutes a list of rocket launch sites. Some of these sites are known as spaceports or cosmodromes. A single rocket launch is sufficient for inclusion in the table, as long as the site is properly documented through a reference. Missile locations with no launches are not included in the list. Proposed and planned sites and sites under construction are not included in the main tabulation, but may appear in condensed lists under the tables.
A shorter list of spaceports for human spaceflight and satellite launches is available in the article Spaceport.
Major/active spaceports are shown in bold.
Note that some Russian cosmodromes appear in this section, some in the Europe section.
Note that some European countries operate spaceports in Africa, South America, or other equatorial regions. These spaceports are listed in this article according to their geographical location. Some Russian-controlled launch sites are listed as being in Asia. Note that some Russian cosmodromes appear in this section, some in the section Asia.
Please delete items or move them to the table above with appropriate data and references.
Country | Location | Coordinates | Operational date | Number of rocket launches | Heaviest rocket launched | Highest achieved altitude | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | Woomera Test Range, SA | 30°57′31″S136°30′13″E / 30.95875°S 136.50366°E | 1950s– | 28,000 kg | Orbital | Australian government research facility. Missile testing, 2 satellite launches. | |
Australia | Carnarvon, WA | 24°29′08″S113°24′31″E / 24.48564°S 113.40866°E | 1964–1965 | 12 | 120 km | ||
Australia | Lancelin, WA | 30°58′59″S115°19′04″E / 30.98309°S 115.31774°E | 1974–1974 | 2 | During a total solar eclipse | ||
Australia | Koonibba Test Range, SA | 31°53′08″S133°26′55″E / 31.885558°S 133.448686°E | 2019– | 4 | 85 km | Used by Southern Launch for suborbital launch tests | |
Australia | Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, SA | 34°56′02″S135°39′08″E / 34.934°S 135.6523°E | 2020– | Used by Southern Launch for orbital polar launches | |||
Australia | Arnhem Space Centre, NT | 12°22′41″S136°49′17″E / 12.378021°S 136.821402°E | 2021– | 2 | 327 km | First NASA launches outside USA. Australia's first commercial launches | |
Marshall Islands | Reagan Test Site, Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll | 9°02′53″N167°44′35″E / 9.048167°N 167.743083°E | 1950s– | 39,000 kg | Orbital | US-controlled ICBM base converted for satellites. SpaceX Falcon 1. Close to the equator. | |
New Zealand | Birdling's Flat | 43°49′01″S172°40′59″E / 43.81700°S 172.68300°E | 1980s– | 10< | Used for sounding rockets. Formerly proposed launch site for Rocket Lab, never developed. | ||
New Zealand | Great Mercury Island | 36°21′18″S175°27′36″E / 36.35511°S 175.46006°E | 2009 | 1 | 60 kg | 120 km | Used for the first launch by Rocket Lab of their Atea 1 suborbital rocket. |
New Zealand | Mahia Peninsula | 39°15′38″S177°51′52″E / 39.26044°S 177.86431°E | 2017– | 42 [88] | 13,000 kg [89] | Lunar | Launch site built and operated by Rocket Lab. First commercial spaceport in the southern hemisphere. |
Country | Location | Coordinates | Operational date | Number of rocket launches | Heaviest rocket launched | Highest achieved altitude | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ocean Odyssey complex | Mobile | 1999– | 30 | 462,000 kg | Orbital | Mobile satellite launch platform operated by Sea Launch. Uses a converted oil platform that plies between Long Beach, California, where a Zenit-3SL rocket is collected, and the equator, where the rocket is launched. | |
Russia | Russian Delta class submarines | Mobile | 1998– | 2 | 30,000 kg | Orbital | Launch of uncrewed satellites into Earth orbit via converted SLBM missile Shtil from the Barents Sea. |
Denmark | MLP Sputnik | 55°02′57″N15°36′11″E / 55.04917°N 15.60306°E | 2010– | 4 | 1,630 kg | 8.2 km | Mobile satellite launch platform operated by Copenhagen Suborbitals. |
Please delete items or move them to the table above with appropriate data and references.
A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories. However, rocket launch sites for purely sub-orbital flights are sometimes called spaceports, as in recent years new and proposed sites for suborbital human flights have been frequently referred to or named "spaceports". Space stations and proposed future bases on the Moon are sometimes called spaceports, in particular if intended as a base for further journeys.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian crewed spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.
Baikonur, formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered by the Russian Federation as an enclave until 2050. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Russian president Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995. During the Soviet period, it was sometimes referred to as Zvezdograd (Звездоград), Russian for Star City.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. As of 2024, it is Europe's only operational orbital spaceport and the northernmost spaceport in the world. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.
The Guiana Space Centre, also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately 310 mi (500 km) north of the equator at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is a suitable location for a spaceport because of its equatorial location and open sea to the east.
Töretam is a station on the main Moscow to Tashkent railway, located in Kazakhstan. The name means "Töre's grave" in the Kazakh language. Töre, or more formally, Töre-Baba, was a noble and descendant of Genghis Khan. Töretam is near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian – formerly Soviet – spaceport, and near the city of Baikonur, which was constructed to service the cosmodrome.
The Alcântara Space Center, former known as Alcântara Launch Center is a space center and launching facility of the Brazilian Space Agency in the city of Alcântara, located on Brazil's northern Atlantic coast, in the state of Maranhão. It is operated by the Brazilian Air Force. The CEA is the closest launching base to the equator. This gives the launch site a significant advantage in launching geosynchronous satellites, an attribute shared by the Guiana Space Centre.
The State Space Agency of Ukraine is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs. Along with the Ukrainian Defense Industry and the Antonov Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex, it is a major state complex of the national defense industry of Ukraine.The agency was formed in 1992 based on the Soviet space program infrastructure remaining in Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The Kosmos rockets were a series of Soviet and subsequently Russian rockets, derived from the R-12 and R-14 missiles, the best known of which is the Kosmos-3M, which has made over 440 launches. The Kosmos family contained a number of rockets, both carrier rockets and sounding rockets, for orbital and sub-orbital spaceflight respectively. The first variant, the Kosmos-2I, first flew on 27 October 1961. Over 700 Kosmos rockets have been launched overall.
Rokot, also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of 1,950 kilograms (4,300 lb) into a 200-kilometre (120 mi) Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), supplied and operated by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The first launches started in the 1990s from Baikonur Cosmodrome out of a silo. Later commercial launches commenced from Plesetsk Cosmodrome using a launch ramp specially rebuilt from one for the Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. The cost of the launcher itself was about US$15 million in 1999; The contract with European Space Agency (ESA) for launching Swarm in September 2013 was worth €27.1 million.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is a commercial space launch facility located at the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and south of Chincoteague, Virginia, United States. It is owned and operated by the Virginia Spaceport Authority.
The Zenit-2 was a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash.
This comparison of orbital launch systems lists the attributes of all individual rocket configurations designed to reach orbit. A first list contains rockets that are operational or in development as of 2023; a second list includes all upcoming rockets and a third list includes all retired rockets. For the simple list of all conventional launcher families, see: Comparison of orbital launchers families. For the list of predominantly solid-fueled orbital launch systems, see: Comparison of solid-fueled orbital launch systems.
The Vostochny Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport above the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East. It is intended to reduce Russia's dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first launch took place on 28 April 2016 at 02:01 UTC. As of 1 July 2022, eleven launch attempts have been made with ten successes.
Strela is a Russian orbital carrier rocket, derived from the Soviet/Russian UR-100NU missile. It conducted its maiden test launch on 5 December 2003, carried its first functional payload on 27 June 2013, and a second one on 19 December 2014.
Site 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome is a launch site used by Proton rockets. It consists of two launch pads, areas 39 and 40. Area 39 is currently used for Proton-M launches, including commercial flights conducted by International Launch Services. Area 40 is currently inactive, as it was slated to be rebuilt as a launch site for the Angara rocket. Although the project was relocated to Site 250, Area 40 was not put back into service.
Launch Pad 0 (LP-0), also known as Launch Complex 0 (LC-0), or Launch Area 0 (LA-0), is a launch complex at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, in the United States. MARS is located adjacent to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), which ran the launch complex until 2003. WFF continues to provide various support services to MARS launches under contract with the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Site 110 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome is a launch facility which was used by the N1 rocket during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and by the Energia rocket during the 1980s.
The space program of Kazakhstan is originated from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Kazakhstan declared their independence. The Kazakh space program consist of cosmonaut and satellite missions. The only launch site situated at Kazakhstan is Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is leased to Russia. The program is led by KazCosmos since 2007.