2014 in spaceflight
In 2014, the maiden flight of the Angara A5, Antares 120 and Antares 130 took place. Overview. An Ariane 5 ES launched the "Georges Lemaître" Automated Transfer Vehicle, the last one of the series, which also marked 60 successfully completed Ariane 5 launches in a row. On 22 August 2014, Arianespace launched the first two Full Operational Capability Galileo satellites for the European satellite navigation system. A number of significant events in planetary exploration occurred in 2014, including the entry of the Rosetta spacecraft into orbit around the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014 and the  deployment of the Philae lander to its surface in November, which marked the first orbit of and landing on a comet, respectively, and featured prominently in social media. Another notable occurrence was the entry of India's Mars Orbiter Mission into Martian orbit in September, making India the first Asian nation to reach Mars. On 5 December 2014, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launched the first Orion spacecraft test mission for NASA, Exploration Flight Test 1. Orbital launch statistics. By country. For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight  to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.