 .png) _(cropped).jpg)  .jpeg) Highlights from spaceflight in 2021[a] | |
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| First | 8 January |
| Last | 30 December |
| Total | 146 |
| Successes | 135 |
| Failures | 10 |
| Partial failures | 1 |
| Catalogued | 133 |
| National firsts | |
| Spaceflight |
|
| Satellite | |
| Space traveller | |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights | |
| Retirements | |
| Crewed flights | |
| Orbital | 8 |
| Orbital travellers | 27 |
| Suborbital | 5 |
| Suborbital travellers | 21 |
| Total travellers | 48 |
| EVAs | 17 |
The year 2021 broke the record for the mostorbital launch attempts till then (146) and most humans in space concurrently (19) despite the effects ofCOVID-19 pandemic.
TheIXPE telescope was launched on a Falcon 9 on 9 December 2021. The long-delayedJames Webb Space Telescope, the largest opticalspace telescope ever built, was launched to theSun–EarthL2 point by a EuropeanAriane 5 rocket on 25 December 2021.[2]
Spacecraft from three Mars exploration programs from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States (Hope,Tianwen-1, andMars 2020) arrived at Mars in February.
ThePerseverance rover landed on 18 February. As part of the Mars 2020 mission, theIngenuity solar-powered drone performed the first powered aircraft flight on another planet in human history. It has a communications link with thePerseverance rover and used autonomous control during its short scripted flights.
TheTianwen-1 lander andZhurong rover landed on 14 May, after conducting a geological survey of the landing site from orbit.Zhurong was deployed on the Martian surface on 22 May, making China the second country in history to successfully deploy a rover on Mars. The rover then dropped a remotely controlled camera on the ground, which took a group photo of the lander and rover on 1 June.
Lucy, aNASAspace probe, was launched on 16 October[3] and began a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids, visiting sixJupiter trojans, and oneMain Beltasteroid.[4] Trojans are asteroids which shareJupiter'sorbit around theSun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet.
TheDouble Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was launched on 24 November. It was aspace probe that visited thedouble asteroidDidymos and demonstrated the kinetic effects of crashing an impactor spacecraft into anasteroid moon forplanetary defense purposes. The mission was intended to test whether a spacecraft impact could successfullydeflect an asteroid on a collision course withEarth.[5]
TheJuno probe continues its exploration of Jupiter. Originally, its mission was intended to conclude on 31 July by burning up in Jupiter's atmosphere following its 35th perijove. However, on 8 January 2021, NASA announced that the probe was granted a second mission extension through September 2025, which could include future flybys ofEuropa andIo.[6][7]
Lastly the Tianwen-1 orbiter released another deployable camera in Mars orbit on 31 December 2021, to image itself and Northern Mars Ice Cap from Mars orbit.
China'sChang'e-4 lander andYutu-2 rover reached 1000-days milestone on thefar side of the Moon while still being operational.[8]
TheLandsat 9 Earth observation satellite was launched 27 September.
The first feature-length fiction film to be filmed in space (some scenes) by professional film-makers, the Russian filmThe Challenge was filmed onboard ISS in October 2021 by Russian directorKlim Shipenko with actressYulia Peresild starring.[note 1]
A new record was set for the largest number of humans in orbit (14) on 16 September 2021,[9] and a new record for the largest number of humans in space (19) at one time (10 in the ISS, 3 on board the Tiangong Space Station, 6 on board New Shepard-19) was set on 11 December 2021.[10]
China began construction of theTiangong space station (phase 3 of theTiangong program) with the launch of theTianhe core module on 29 April 2021. ATianzhou cargo delivery mission was launched on 29 May 2021, and theShenzhou 12 crewed mission on 17 June 2021.[11]Shenzhou 13 has launched a second crew on 15 October and conducted their first EVA on 7 November, makingWang Yaping the first Chinese female astronaut to perform a spacewalk.[12]
TheISS saw one module being permanently removed from the orbiting complex and two new modules being added.Pirs became the first habitable element of the station to be decommissioned, undocked, and deorbited on 26 July 2021[13] to make room forNauka, the first new module in theRussian Orbital Segment of ISS (indeed, first new module for the whole of ISS) in years. The Russian madeNauka module was launched fromBaikonur Cosmodrome on 21 July 2021.Nauka carried theEuropean Robotic Arm (ERA) along with it to the station. The ISS was also joined by a new Russian node modulePrichal, launched 24 November 2021.
In the United States,Virgin Galactic conducted the first suborbital human spaceflight fromNew Mexico on 22 May 2021 withSpaceShipTwoVSS Unity.[14] Two astronauts were on board,Frederick Sturckow andDavid Mackay. The flight was also the first suborbital human spaceflight fromSpaceport America. A second flight, carrying company founderRichard Branson and three other passengers, was conducted on 11 July 2021.[15]
Thefirst crewed flight ofBlue Origin'sNew Shepard suborbital spacecraft successfully sent four civilians, including company founderJeff Bezos, into space just above theKármán line on 20 July 2021.[16] Blue Origin'ssecond crewed suborbital flight of New Shepard occurred 13 October 2021, this time not including Bezos but the actorWilliam Shatner and 3 others. Thethird flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard, again a suborbital flight, took place 11 December 2021. This was the first flight with six passengers on board, the full number of passengers the New Shepard is designed for.
On 16 September 2021SpaceX launched theInspiration4 mission. The mission successfully completed the first orbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard. The mission was privately financed byJared Isaacman who participated in the flight with 3 other passengers (the others did not pay for their flight). The mission orbited the Earth at high orbit (higher than ISS) and splashed down in the Atlantic, lasting almost three days.
On 8 December 2021 the RussianSoyuz MS-20 spacecraft began a 12-day space tourism mission to ISS, resuming space tourism activity in the ISS after over a decade; the previous space tourist to visit the station was the CanadianGuy Laliberté in 2009. The 2021 space tourist mission took two tourists, the Japanese billionaireYusaku Maezawa and his assistantYozo Hirano, to the station.
The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit continued with the continued development ofsmaller rockets by multiple commercial launch providers and larger next-generation vehicles by more established players.
While multiple high-profile next-generation rockets were originally planned to make their maiden orbital flights in 2021, all were ultimately shifted to 2022 and beyond due to development delays. These included the maiden flight ofVulcan Centaur, designed to gradually replaceAtlas V andDelta IV Heavy at lower costs, which was postponed in June 2021;[17] theMitsubishi Heavy Industries'sH3 launch vehicle, planned to cost less than half that of its predecessorH-IIA;[18] the maiden launch of NASA'sSpace Launch System (SLS) super heavy-lift rocket on theArtemis 1, which was postponed mid-year to early 2022; and the first orbital test flight of a prototype of theSpaceX Starship.[19]
Thelatter rocket's development continued through 2021 atSpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with a suborbital testing campaign continuing from the previous year. Starship prototype SN15 was the first testbed of the future rocket family to survive a launch and soft touchdown on 5 May 2021. The first-ever full-stack fit check of Starship prototype SN20 with the booster stage followed in August.
| Month | Num. of successes | Num. of failures |
|---|---|---|
| January | 7 | 0 |
| February | 9 | 1 |
| March | 10 | 0 |
| April | 11 | 0 |
| May | 9 | 1 |
| June | 13 | 1 |
| July | 11 | 0 |
| August | 9 | 3 |
| September | 10 | 1 |
| October | 10 | 1 |
| November | 16 | 0 |
| December | 20 | 3 |
| Total | 135 | 11 |
| Date (UTC) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 January | Parker Solar Probe | 7thperihelion | The spacecraft transmitted a “tone one,” indicating all systems were healthy and operating normally after the spacecraft's close approach to theSun. |
| 9 February | Emirates Mars Mission | Mars orbit insertion | Probe achieved an initial orbit around Mars of 1,000 x 49,380 km. It will spend several months modifying its orbit to 20,000 x 43,000 km.[20] |
| 10 February | Tianwen-1 | Mars orbit insertion | Probe achieved an initial orbit around Mars of 400 x 180,000 km. Its initial reconnaissance orbit will be 265 x 60,000 km. In the reconnaissance orbit it released a deployable camera on 31 December 2021. |
| 18 February | Perseverance | Mars landing | Rover successfully landed at target destination, with confirmation on Earth at 20:55 UTC. Landing was atJezero crater, coordinates18°26′41″N77°27′03″E / 18.4447°N 77.4508°E /18.4447; 77.4508. |
| 20 February | Parker Solar Probe | Fourthgravity assist atVenus | |
| 21 February | Juno | 32ndperijove ofJupiter | |
| 7 April | OSIRIS-REx | Begin flyby ofBennu[21] | |
| 15 April | Juno | 33rd perijove | |
| 29 April | Parker Solar Probe | 8th perihelion | |
| 10 May | OSIRIS-REx | Completes Bennu flyby and begins journey back to Earth[21] | |
| 14 May | Zhurong | Mars landing | Rover successfully landed atUtopia Planitia, coordinates25°06′N109°54′E / 25.1°N 109.9°E /25.1; 109.9. |
| 8 June | Juno | 34th perijove | On the day of perijove,Juno flew byGanymede, reducing its orbital period around Jupiter to 43 days.[6][7] |
| 21 July | Juno | 35th perijove | Beginning ofJuno's second mission extension.[6][7] |
| 8 August | Solar Orbiter | Second gravity assist at Venus[22] | |
| 9 August | Parker Solar Probe | 9th perihelion | |
| 11 August | BepiColombo | Second gravity assist at Venus | |
| 2 September | Juno | 36th perijove | |
| 2 October | BepiColombo | First gravity assist atMercury | |
| 16 October | Juno | 37th perijove | |
| 16 October | Parker Solar Probe | Fifth gravity assist at Venus | |
| 21 November | Parker Solar Probe | 10th perihelion | |
| 26 November | Solar Orbiter | Gravity assist at Earth[22] | Gravity assist will set up future fly-bys of Venus that will increase its inclination relative to theSun. |
| Start date/time | Duration | End time | Spacecraft | Crew | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 January 11:28 | 6 hours56 minutes | 18:24 | Expedition 64 |  Michael S. Hopkins | Installation of the exposed platformAirbusBartolomeo |
| 1 February 12:57 | 5 hours20 minutes | 18:17 | Expedition 64 | Michael S. Hopkins | Install a new lithium-ion battery on the P-4 truss, where an earlier lithium replacement blew a fuse in April 2019. Upgrade high definition video and camera gear on ISS exterior. |
| 28 February 11:12 | 7 hours04 minutes | 18:16 | Expedition 64 | Kathleen Rubins | Install modification kit to prepare Station for new solar array installation. |
| 5 March 11:37 | 6 hours 56 minutes | 18:33 | Expedition 64 | Kathleen Rubins | Additional upgrades and Kibo module platform work |
| 13 March 13:14 | 6 hours 47 minutes | 20:01 | Expedition 64 | Michael Hopkins | P6 fixes and installations |
| 2 June 05:53 | 7 hours 19 minutes | 13:12 | Expedition 65 |  Oleg Novitsky | Second in a series of spacewalks to decommission thePirs Airlock which is scheduled to be replaced byNauka in the summer of 2021. Task involve installing a flow control valve onZarya, removing docking antennas and their cables on Pirs, removing EVA gap spanners from Pirs, transferring experiments over toPoisk, installing Test containers on the hatches, and relocating aStrela crane over to Poisk. Getahead task involve cleaning the windows on the Russian segment, and doing an inspection ofZvezda and plugging any leaks they find.[23][24] |
| 16 June 12:11 | 7 hours 15 minutes | 19:26 | Expedition 65 | Shane Kimbrough | First in a series of spacewalks to install the iROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. While working on releasing the arrays from their launch carrier, Kimbrough's spacesuit experienced issues with its Display and Control Module (DCM), so he was sent back to the airlock to connect to station umbilicals to restart it. The restart was successful, although it delayed the EVA. Additionally, an issue was discovered with his suit's sublimator, which threatened to end the EVA prematurely; this was determined to be a false reading, allowing work to resume. Following this, the astronauts successfully released the solar arrays and installed them on the P6 mounting bracket. A subsequent attempt to unfold the two rolled arrays, which were folded side by side during launch, failed due to interference (blockage) from a structure near the mounting area. As the EVA was then past the six-hour mark, ground controllers instructed the astronauts to finish securing the array structure to the station, photograph the work site, and return to the airlock. The next steps of unfolding the array pair, making electrical connections, and unfurling the rolled arrays were postponed to a future EVA pending ground analysis of the interference issue |
| 20 June 11:42 | 6 hours 28 minutes | 18:10 | Expedition 65 | Shane Kimbrough | Second in a series of spacewalks that will install the iROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. The spacewalkers managed to connect iROSA with a little elbow grease and at 16:40 hours deployed it and it is receiving power. |
| 25 June 11:52 | 6 hours 45 minutes | 18:37 | Expedition 65 | Shane Kimbrough | Third in a series of spacewalks that will install the ROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. If time allows the astronauts will also route cables to the Russian segment and install a WiFi router on the truss. |
| 4 July 00:11 | 6 hours 46 minutes | 06:57 | Shenzhou 12 |  Liu Boming | First Chinese spacewalk sinceShenzhou 7 in 2008. Installation work was done on the exterior of theTiangong space station.[25] |
| 20 August 00:38 | 5 hours 55 minutes | 06:33 | Shenzhou 12 | Nie Haisheng | Second EVA of Shenzhou 12 crew to install foot stops and a workbench on the station's large robotic arm, a pump set for its thermal control system, and additional work on the panoramic camera.[26] |
| 3 September 14:35 | 7 hours 54 minutes | 22:35 | Expedition 65 | Oleg Novitsky | First in a series of spacewalks to outfitNauka. The cosmonauts will route cables which were recently temp stowed on PMA 1 alongZarya to theZvezda transfer compartment where they will be mated toNauka. The spacewalk will conclude with the installation of handrails and the first experiments on the new module. If time allows the cosmonauts will change Biorisk containers and will retrieve and replace two exposure experiments fromPoisk and bring them inside. |
| 9 September 15:00 | 7 hours 25 minutes | 22:16 | Expedition 65 | Oleg Novitsky | Second in a series of spacewalks to outfitNauka.[27][28] The cosmonauts continued where they left off from EVA 5, finishingEthernet cable connections and installing four EVA handrails onNauka (including the troublesome one left incomplete from EVA 5). They subsequently connected cable bundles betweenNauka andZvezda, providing Ethernet links between those modules as well as links forNauka's TV cameras and docking navigation antennas (Kurs andTORU). They then mounted threeBiorisk microorganism exposure experiment modules on the exterior of thePoisk airlock module. Additionally, the cosmonauts took survey photos of the exterior of the Russian segment of the station, including the Kurs docking antennas of theProgress MS-17 cargo vehicle (confirming that they were undamaged[29][30]) and external sensors onNauka;[31] they also realigned a thruster plume measurement unit onPoisk. Finally, the cosmonauts tied together and jettisoned a junk cable reel cover along with some leftover insulation from theBiorisk experiments.[32] |
| 12 September 12:30 | 6 hours 54 minutes | 19:09 | Expedition 65 |  Akihiko Hoshide | Install the 3B modification kit on the P4 Truss for the arrival ofSpaceX CRS-24 with the final portsideIROSA solar arrays. Install a wifi router on the truss, and route and mate cables on the US side of PMA 1 to power up theNauka module. Replace a Floating Point Measuring Unit and a Static Charge Micrometer external component on the S1 Truss to prepare the port side for it long term configuration. |
| 7 November 10:51 | 6 hours 25 minutes | 17:16 | Shenzhou 13 | Zhai Zhigang | They first installed foot stoppers and a working platform to the robotic arm before they set to work together to install a suspension device and transfer connectors to the robotic arm. Wang now becomes the first female Chinese astronaut to conduct extravehicular activities (EVA). |
| 2 December 11:15 | 6 hours 32 minutes | 17:45 | Expedition 66 | Tom Marshburn | Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron conducted an EVA mainly to replace the Port 1 Truss S-Band Communications Antenna |
| 26 December 10:44 | 6 hours 11 minutes | 16:55 | Shenzhou 13 | Zhai Zhigang | The astronauts deployed an external camera (panoramic camera C), installed a foot restraint platform, and tested various methods of translation (movement) of objects outside the station. |
| Date/Time (UTC) | Source object | Event type | Pieces tracked | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 March | Yunhai-1 02 | collision with a space junk | 37 | Accidental collision with a fragment from theZenit-2 rocket body that launchedTselina-2 in 1996.[33] |
| 15 November | Kosmos 1408 | ASAT (Anti-Satellite) weapon system test | ~1500 | On 15 November 2021, at around 02:50 UTC,[34] the satellite was destroyed as part of ananti-satellite weapons test by Russia, generating a space debris cloud that threatened theInternational Space Station.[35][36] The seven crew members aboard the ISS (four American, two Russian, one German)[35] were told to put on their spacesuits[37] and take shelter in thecrew capsules[38] so they could quickly return to Earth if debris struck the station.[39] The satellite had been in orbit at an altitude ~50 kilometers (~30 miles) above the ISS orbital altitude,[40] with the debris intersecting the orbit of the ISS every 93 minutes.[41] |
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 becauseSoyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.
| Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 56[b] | 53 | 3 | 0 | |
 France | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
 India | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
 Iran | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
 Italy | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Russia | 25[c] | 24 | 0 | 1 | |
 South Korea | 1 | 0 | 1[42] | 0 | |
 United States | 51 | 48 | 3 | 0 | |
| World | 146 | 135 | 10 | 1 | |
| Family | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha | United States | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Angara | Russia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Antares | United States | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ariane | France | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Astra | United States | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Atlas | United States | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ceres | China | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Delta | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Electron | United States | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
| Epsilon | Japan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Falcon | United States | 31 | 31 | 0 | 0 | |
| GSLV | India | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| H-II | Japan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hyperbola | China | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Kuaizhou | People's Republic of China | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| LauncherOne | United States | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March | China | 49 | 49 | 0 | 0 | |
| Minotaur | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nuri | South Korea | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Pegasus | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| PSLV | India | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| R-7 | Russia | 22 | 22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Simorgh | Iran | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Universal Rocket | Russia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vega | Italy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Rocket | Country | Family | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha | United States | Alpha | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Angara A5 | Russia | Angara | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Antares 200 | United States | Antares | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ariane 5 | France | Ariane | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Atlas V | United States | Atlas | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ceres-1 | China | Ceres | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Delta IV | United States | Delta | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Electron | United States | Electron | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
| Epsilon | Japan | Epsilon | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Falcon 9 | United States | Falcon | 31 | 31 | 0 | 0 | |
| GSLV | India | GSLV | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| H-IIA | Japan | H-II | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hyperbola-1 | China | Hyperbola | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Kuaizhou | China | Kuaizhou | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| LauncherOne | United States | LauncherOne | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 2 | China | Long March | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 3 | China | Long March | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 4 | China | Long March | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 5 | China | Long March | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 6 | China | Long March | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Long March 7 | China | Long March | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Minotaur I | United States | Minotaur | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nuri | South Korea | Nuri | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Maiden flight |
| Pegasus | United States | Pegasus | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| PSLV | India | PSLV | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Proton | Russia | Universal Rocket | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Rocket 3 | United States | Astra | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Simorgh | Iran | Simorgh | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Soyuz-2 | Russia | R-7 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vega | Italy | Vega | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Site | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baikonur |  Kazakhstan | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cape Canaveral | United States | 19 | 19 | 0 | 0 | |
| Jiuquan | China | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | |
| Kennedy | United States | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kourou | France | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mahia |  New Zealand | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
| MARS | United States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mojave | United States | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Naro | South Korea | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| PSCA | United States | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Plesetsk | Russia | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| Satish Dhawan | India | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Semnan | Iran | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Taiyuan | China | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Tanegashima | Japan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Uchinoura | Japan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vandenberg | United States | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | |
| Vostochny | Russia | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wenchang | China | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Xichang | China | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 146 | 135 | 10 | 1 | ||
| Orbital regime | Launches | Achieved | Not achieved | Accidentally achieved | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transatmospheric | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Low Earth /Sun-synchronous | 112 | 103 | 9 | 0 | Including flights toISS andTiangong |
| Geosynchronous /GTO | 26 | 25 | 0 | 1 | |
| Medium Earth /Molniya | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| High Earth /Lunar transfer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Heliocentric orbit /Planetary transfer | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 146 | 135 | 9 | 2 |
For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of suborbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. Flights intended to fly below 80 km (50 mi) are omitted.
| Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
 Canada | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| China | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| India | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| Iran | 36 | 36 | 0 | 0 | |
| Japan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
 Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
 Pakistan | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Russia | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| South Korea | 3[d] | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
 Taiwan | 2[e] | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Turkey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| United States | 49 | 47 | 2 | 0 | |
 Ukraine | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
 Yemen | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| World | 147 | 141 | 4 | 2 | |
[And one from a British research station in Antarctica.]
2021 in space | ||
|---|---|---|
| Space probe and telescope launches  |
|    |
| Impact events | ||
| SelectedNEOs | ||
| Exoplanets | ||
| Discoveries |
| |
| Comets | ||
| Space exploration |
| |
