Space / incremental / 3 MIN READ

358 Rocket Launches Scheduled: The State of the Launch Manifest

There are 358 rocket launches currently on the books — a number that would have seemed absurd a decade ago. The manifest is now dense enough to need a search engine.

UPDATED 2026-05-11 / TIME HORIZON · mid term / ID · D8903813
Reality 72 /100
Hype 25 /100
Impact 45 /100
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Explanation

The global launch schedule has grown to 358 confirmed or planned missions, tracked in a single filterable database. That's not a projection — those are real, scheduled flights across commercial, government, and military operators worldwide.

Why does this matter now? Because the cadence of launches is no longer a curiosity for space buffs — it's a business signal. Satellite constellations, Earth observation, national security payloads, and crewed missions are all competing for launch windows, range time, and orbital slots. Knowing what's flying, when, and on what rocket is increasingly relevant to anyone watching the space economy, supply chains, or geopolitics.

The practical value here is the filtering layer. With dozens of launch providers — SpaceX, Rocket Lab, ULA, Arianespace, ISRO, Roscosmos, CASC, and a growing tail of newcomers — raw lists are noise. Searchable, filterable manifests let you cut to the missions that actually matter for your context.

That said, this is an aggregation tool, not a primary source. Launch dates slip constantly; "scheduled" can mean anything from "pad-ready" to "optimistic placeholder." Treat it as a directional map, not a timetable.

Watch for: whether the 358-launch figure holds or grows through the year — sustained volume above 200 annual launches would mark a structural shift in the industry's throughput capacity.

Reality meter

Space Time horizon · mid term
Reality Score 72 / 100
Hype Risk 25 / 100
Impact 45 / 100
Source Quality 65 / 100
Community Confidence 50 / 100

Why this score?

Trust Layer Score basis
Score basis

A detailed evidence breakdown is being added. For now, the score basis is the source list below and the reality meter above.

Source receipts
  • 46 sources on file
  • Avg trust 41/100
  • Trust 40–95/100

Time horizon

Expected mid term

Community read

Community live aggregateIdle
Reality (article)72/ 100
Hype25/ 100
Impact45/ 100
Confidence50/ 100
Prediction Yes0%none yet
Prediction votes0∑

Glossary

NET (No Earlier Than)
A scheduling convention indicating the earliest possible date a launch can occur, allowing for delays without requiring a formal schedule change. Actual launch dates typically slip beyond NET dates due to technical or weather issues.
Constellation replenishment flights
Routine launches dedicated to replacing or expanding satellites in a large orbital network (such as Starlink or Kuiper), which have become a recurring baseline demand in the launch market rather than one-time missions.
Rideshare windows
Scheduled launch opportunities where a primary payload shares a rocket with secondary payloads, allowing smaller satellite operators to access orbital launch capacity at lower cost.
Orbital congestion
The increasing density of active satellites and debris in Earth orbit, which creates operational challenges for collision avoidance and spectrum management as launch cadence accelerates.
Slip rates
The historical frequency and magnitude of delays between originally scheduled launch dates and actual launch dates for a given launch provider, used as a metric of operational reliability.
Range reservations
Bookings made by launch providers to hold access to launch facilities and airspace, sometimes made speculatively to maintain investor confidence or competitive positioning.
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Prediction

Will the global number of orbital launch attempts exceed 300 in the next 12 months?

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