Two preserved categories
The snapshot contains 2,609 orbital-category launches and 71 deep-space-category launches, totaling 2,680.
Historical analysis · 2006–2026
Deep-Space vs Orbital Launches
Orbital and deep-space launch activity side by side, using GCAT’s original categories.
RECORDED LAUNCHES2,680O + D · includes incomplete latest year
ORBITAL · O2,609Original GCAT category
DEEP SPACE · D71Original GCAT category
D SHARE2.65%D ÷ (O + D)
Annual O + D composition
Stacked counts; numbers at right show annual totals. Faded rows are incomplete.
Orbital ODeep space D
Source: GCAT · Unique launch identifiersLaunch classifications, not a census of scientific missions
2026 is incomplete: 254 launches are recorded in this snapshot year. No annual growth comparison with the previous full year is made.
Reading the data
What the record shows
Deep-space share
D-category launches represent 2.65% of the selected launch total. This is a classification share, not a measure of spending, payload mass or scientific value.
Highest complete-year D count
The highest D count among complete years is 7, recorded in 2018, 2023, 2024. The incomplete snapshot year is excluded from this comparison.
The underlying numbers
Orbital and deep-space totals
Deep-space share uses O + D as its denominator. N is outside the scope.
| Year | O | D | Total | D share | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 64 | 2 | 66 | 3.03% | Full year |
| 2007 | 63 | 5 | 68 | 7.35% | Full year |
| 2008 | 67 | 2 | 69 | 2.90% | Full year |
| 2009 | 74 | 4 | 78 | 5.13% | Full year |
| 2010 | 71 | 3 | 74 | 4.05% | Full year |
| 2011 | 81 | 3 | 84 | 3.57% | Full year |
| 2012 | 78 | 0 | 78 | 0.00% | Full year |
| 2013 | 79 | 2 | 81 | 2.47% | Full year |
| 2014 | 88 | 4 | 92 | 4.35% | Full year |
| 2015 | 85 | 2 | 87 | 2.30% | Full year |
| 2016 | 82 | 3 | 85 | 3.53% | Full year |
| 2017 | 90 | 0 | 90 | 0.00% | Full year |
| 2018 | 107 | 7 | 114 | 6.14% | Full year |
| 2019 | 101 | 1 | 102 | 0.98% | Full year |
| 2020 | 109 | 5 | 114 | 4.39% | Full year |
| 2021 | 144 | 2 | 146 | 1.37% | Full year |
| 2022 | 182 | 4 | 186 | 2.15% | Full year |
| 2023 | 214 | 7 | 221 | 3.17% | Full year |
| 2024 | 255 | 7 | 262 | 2.67% | Full year |
| 2025 | 324 | 5 | 329 | 1.52% | Full year |
| 2026 | 251 | 3 | 254 | 1.18% | Incomplete · YTD |