Cape Canaveral Nears 1,000 Space Rocket Launches

Sept. 13—The Cape Canaveral launch facility, in central Florida—the primary rocket-launch facility in the United States—is rapidly approaching the milestone of 1,000 rocket launches, a goal it will likely reach by the end of this year. Combined with military facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (769 total launches) or the even more secretive facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, the U.S. has launched, according to Space Launch Schedule, almost 2,000 rockets since the space era first dawned in the 1960s.

(Sept. 12 marked the 62nd anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's speech at Rice University that committed the United States to place a man on the moon before the end of that decade.)

In second place are the Russians, who have launched (including the Soviet era) a total of 1,548 rockets, almost exclusively from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in the modern Republic of Kazakhstan. Russia also launches specialized missions from any of several military-connected facilities, such as the far north Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia, and a few others. China has now launched more than 800 rockets into space from five different domestic locations, including 49 from a floating launch pad at sea.

At least a dozen other nations, including Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, French Guiana (used by the European Space Agency), and Iran now have their own, active launch facilities, which have sent satellites into orbit. In the continent of South America, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru have limited active facilities, which currently launch satellites into orbit. Even the continent of Africa has a couple of space launch sites—in Algeria and Kenya—from which satellites have been launched, and several additional ones which are being courted, because of their advantageous location along the Equator.