| 6,854 spacecrafts were launched
between 1957 and 2009 by 5,038 rockets. Of these launches, 4,621 were successfull
and 417 failed to put their payloads into orbit. This represents a 91.7%
rate of success or 11 successes for every 12 launch attempts.
The most frequently used launcher is the Russian A
Semiorka rocket: 1,698 were launched since 1957. Different models of
this rocket were used to carry Sputnik, Vostok, Molniya and Soyuz spacecrafts;
thus they are called “Sputnik” (or A), “Vostok” (A-1), “Molniya” (A-2-e)
and Soyuz (A-2) launchers. This family has a 94.8% success rate.
The other most used launchers are:
| • |
the Russian Kosmos
C |
(461 launches, 95% success), |
| • |
the American Atlas |
(347 launches, 88½% success), |
| • |
the Russian D
“Proton” |
(351 launches, 89% success), |
| • |
the American Delta |
(347 launches, 96% success), |
| • |
the American Thor |
(244 launches, 86½% success), |
| • |
the Russian F
“Tsyklon” |
(235 launches, 96% success), |
| • |
the American Titan |
(220 launches, 92% success), |
| • |
the European Ariane |
(193 launches, 94«% success), |
| • |
the Russian Kosmos
B |
(165 launches, 87% success) |
| • |
the American Space
Snuttle |
(129 launches, 99% success) |
Table
11 lists the 48 launcher families in order of their success rate. The
most reliable is the American Saturn Moon rocket,
which score 100 % success in 28 launches. It is followed by the Space
Snuttle (99%), the F “Tsyklon” (96%),
the Delta (95,5%), the Kosmos
C , A “Semiorka” and the Ariane
(each with a 95% rate of success).
See Table
11 – Launchers Ranking for complete information on all launchers.
|
