juliensimon/space-launch-log

Space Launch Log

Credit: NASA

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete global launch history from Jonathan McDowell's General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (GCAT) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Every orbital and suborbital launch attempt is cataloged with its vehicle type, launch site, mission objective, operating agency, and outcome code.

McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, cross-references official government records, regulatory filings, tracking data, and open-source intelligence to maintain a launch log that frequently corrects errors in official databases. GCAT distinguishes between orbital and suborbital attempts, records partial failures where payloads reached unintended orbits, and assigns standardized vehicle designations across different naming conventions.

The companion sites table provides geographic coordinates and operational history for every launch facility worldwide, from Cape Canaveral and Baikonur to mobile sea-launch platforms. When joined with the launch records, it enables geospatial analysis of global launch infrastructure and its expansion over seven decades.

Configs

Config	Records	Description
launches	75,794	Every known launch attempt -- orbital, suborbital, and failed -- from 1942 to present
sites	710	Launch facilities, pads, and test ranges worldwide

Launches schema

Column	Description
launch_tag	Unique GCAT launch identifier (e.g. '1957-001', '2026-042'); sequential within each year and used as the primary key across GCAT tables
launch_jd	Launch time as Julian Date (days since 4713 BC Jan 1.5); enables precise time-of-day calculations and cross-referencing with astronomical ephemerides
launch_date	Launch date and time in ISO-ish format (YYYY Mon DD HHMM:SS or similar); the human-readable timestamp for the launch event
lv_type	Launch vehicle type designation (e.g. 'Falcon 9', 'Soyuz-2-1a', 'CZ-5B'); cross-references the GCAT launch vehicles table
variant	Vehicle variant or block number providing additional specificity beyond lv_type (e.g. 'Block 5', 'FG')
flight_id	Flight identifier assigned by the launch provider or range (e.g. Falcon 9 booster serial number, mission designator)
flight	Sequential flight number for the vehicle type or booster
mission	Mission name or primary payload name (e.g. 'Starlink Group 6-14', 'Mars 2020')
flight_code	GCAT flight outcome code detailing launch and mission success
platform	Launch platform type (e.g. fixed pad, mobile launcher, sea platform, air launch)
launch_site	Launch site code referencing the GCAT sites table; identifies the facility (e.g. 'CC' for Cape Canaveral, 'GIK-5' for Baikonur)
launch_pad	Specific launch pad within the site (e.g. 'LC39A', 'Pad 1')
ascent_site	Ascent corridor site if different from the launch site (e.g. for air-launched vehicles); null when same as launch site
ascent_pad	Ascent corridor pad identifier; null when same as launch pad
apogee	Achieved apogee altitude in km; for suborbital flights this is the peak altitude; for orbital launches may reflect the initial orbit or be null
apogee_flag	Qualifier on apogee: '~' approximate, '<' upper bound, '>' lower bound
range	Downrange distance in km for suborbital flights; null for orbital launches
range_flag	Qualifier on range: '~' approximate, '<' upper bound, '>' lower bound
destination	Target orbit or destination (e.g. 'LEO', 'GTO', 'Mars', 'Lunar'); describes the intended final orbit or trajectory
orbital_payload	Whether the launch carried a payload to orbit: 'Y' for orbital payload, 'N' for suborbital or failed
agency	Responsible launch agency or operator code (e.g. 'SpaceX', 'Arianespace', 'CASC')
launch_code	Launch outcome code: first character O = orbital success, S = suborbital success, F = failure, U = unknown
fail_code	Failure mode details if the launch failed; describes the stage and nature of the failure; null for successful launches
group	Launch group or campaign identifier linking related launches
category	Launch category: O = orbital, S = suborbital, D = deep space, M = marginal; high-level classification of the mission type
lt_cite	Citation source for the launch time data
cite	General citation or reference source for the launch record
notes	Additional notes on the launch including anomalies, payload details, or historical context

Sites schema

Column	Description
site	GCAT site identifier (e.g. 'KSC', 'GIK-5'); the primary key used in launch records' launch_site column
code	Short code for the site used in compact references
ucode	Unicode-safe code for the site
type	Site type classification: LS = launch site, LP = launch pad, TR = test range, MS = missile site, etc.
state_code	Country/state code where the site is located (e.g. 'US', 'RU', 'CN', 'FR')
start	Date the site became operational; null if the activation date is unknown or pre-dates records
stop	Date the site ceased operations; null if the site is still active or decommission date is unknown
short_name	Short name for the site in the local language
name	Full name of the site in the local language (e.g. Cyrillic for Russian sites)
location	Geographic location description (city, province, country)
longitude	Site longitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84); east positive; enables geospatial analysis of global launch infrastructure
latitude	Site latitude in decimal degrees (WGS-84); north positive; launch site latitude constrains achievable orbital inclinations
error	Estimated position error in the geographic coordinates; null when coordinates are precisely known
parent	Parent site identifier for pads within larger complexes (e.g. individual pads at Cape Canaveral reference 'CC' as parent)
short_ename	Short English name for sites where the primary name is not in English
ename	Full English name for the site
group	Site group or complex grouping related facilities
uname	Unicode-encoded full name for sites with non-ASCII characters

Quick stats

• 75,794 launches (7,038 orbital, 49,515 suborbital)
• 705 distinct agencies/operators
• 710 launch sites
• Coverage: 1942--2026
• Top vehicles: Rocketsonde (21,362), M-100 (5,886), M-100B (1,838), Loki Dart (1,593), Arcas (1,461)

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

launches = load_dataset("juliensimon/space-launch-log", "launches", split="train")
sites = load_dataset("juliensimon/space-launch-log", "sites", split="train")

df = launches.to_pandas()

# Launches per year
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["year"] = df["launch_date"].str[:4].astype(float)
yearly = df.groupby("year").size()
plt.bar(yearly.index, yearly.values, width=0.8)
plt.xlabel("Year")
plt.ylabel("Launches")
plt.title("Global Launch Cadence")
plt.show()

# Most-used launch vehicles
print(df["lv_type"].value_counts().head(10))

# Join with site coordinates for geospatial analysis
sites_df = sites.to_pandas()
df_geo = df.merge(sites_df[["code", "latitude", "longitude"]],
                  left_on="launch_site", right_on="code", how="left")

Data source

GCAT (General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects) by Jonathan McDowell, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Update schedule

Weekly on Mondays at 07:00 UTC via GitHub Actions.

Related datasets

• juliensimon/starlink-fleet-data
• juliensimon/space-track-satcat
• juliensimon/starlink-ground-stations

Citation

@dataset{space_launch_log,
  title = {Global Space Launch Log},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-launch-log},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0