Russia's share of rocket launches fell from 57% to 5%

Claim types Estimate · Interpretation

Researcher catalogue (GCAT), not a government source: Jonathan C. McDowell, General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects, derived Orbital Launch Log (launchlog.tsv), release 1.8.8, data update 2 Nov 2026, read from planet4589.org via the progrss vault (§4.11, progrss calculation, 2 matching recomputes, 0 mismatches). Licence CC BY 4.0: data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat). What it measures: orbital launch attempts (successes and failures, launched, not registered), counted by the country GCAT assigns to the launch vehicle; Soyuz rockets flown by Arianespace from French Guiana count under France, and Soviet-era launches before 1992 (USSR) are left out, so the line starts with Russia in 1992. Shares are a progrss calculation (Estimate): Russia's launches divided by GCAT's world total for the year. Values: 1992 55 of 97 (56.7%), 2000 32 of 85 (37.6%), 2010 30 of 74 (40.5%), 2015 26 of 87 (29.9%), 2020 12 of 114 (10.5%), 2025 17 of 329 (5.2%). Concentration: US launches (181 of 329 in 2025, most of them SpaceX's, see plate 022) swell the world total; without the US, Russia's share fell from 55 of 68 (80.9%) in 1992 to 17 of 148 (11.5%) in 2025, while China made 92 launches in 2025 (4 in 1992). Live re-read of launchlog.tsv (file dated 9 Nov 2026) through the vault's fetch route agrees within about 5% (1992 Russia 55); 2026 to date (to 9 Nov) is still about 5%. The third takeaway's last clause is Interpretation. No claim is made about the purpose of any launch.