Timeline of first orbital launches by country

Common card · No. 369600

This is a timeline of first orbital launches by country. While a number of countries, including Canada, Australia, Brazil, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa, the Philippines, Egypt, Spain, Mexico, Thailand and Chile, have built or launched satellites, as of 2026, fourteen countries, including the United States, Japan, China, India, Iran, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Germany have had the capability to send objects into orbit with their own launch vehicles. Russia and Ukraine inherited the capability of the space launchers and satellites from the Soviet Union, following its dissolution in 1991. Russia launches its rockets from its own and foreign (Kazakh) spaceports. Ukraine launched only from foreign (Kazakh and Russian) launch facilities until 2015, after which political differences with Russia effectively halted Ukraine's ability to produce orbital rockets. France became a space power independently, launching a payload...

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