Datasets:

juliensimon
/

space-launch-log

license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: Global Space Launch Log
language:
  - en
description: >-
  Every orbital launch attempt since 1957 from GCAT, with vehicles, sites, and
  outcomes.
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
  - time-series-forecasting
tags:
  - space
  - launches
  - rockets
  - gcat
  - orbital-mechanics
  - open-data
  - spaceflight
  - launch-vehicle
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
size_categories:
  - 10K<n<100K
configs:
  - config_name: launches
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/launches.parquet
    default: true
  - config_name: sites
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/sites.parquet

Space Launch Log

An orbital sunrise illuminates the Earth's atmosphere, seen from the ISS

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`	75,811	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

75,811 launches (7,052 orbital, 49,516 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

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