The orbital record, since 1956

The economics of orbit rebuild. The Space Shuttle flies its last mission in July 2011, ending thirty years of US crewed launch capability. SpaceX lands the first orbital-class booster in December 2015 and reflies one in March 2017; by 2019, more than half of all mass launched from American soil rides on a Falcon 9 that has flown before. China overtakes the USA in annual launch count in 2018 and again in 2019, with Long March carrying the bulk of its ascent. India's PSLV emerges as the small-satellite workhorse of the decade.

A subdued decade of careful assembly. Columbia breaks apart on reentry in February 2003, grounding the Space Shuttle a second time and slowing the International Space Station to a crawl. The fleet recovers in 2005 and the station's pressurized volume triples by decade's end. China crosses into double-digit annual launches and puts Yang Liwei in orbit aboard Shenzhou 5 in 2003, becoming the third nation to launch a human on its own rocket. From a coral atoll in the Marshall Islands, SpaceX reaches orbit on its fourth try with Falcon 1 in September 2008, the first privately financed vehicle to do so.

Soviet launch cadence collapses almost overnight after 1991. Russia keeps Mir flying through its golden years and begins selling Proton flights to Western commercial customers for the first time. The USA holds the Space Shuttle steady, repairs Hubble in 1993, and sees Zarya and Unity rise to begin the International Space Station in late 1998. Through the middle of the decade, Arianespace's Ariane 4 quietly carries more than half of all commercial geostationary satellites launched worldwide.

The busiest orbital decade ever recorded. The Soviet Union flies at full stride: Soyuz as the metronome, Proton for the heaviest payloads, Tsyklon and Kosmos rounding out a cadence of more than two launches a week. The Space Shuttle starts flying in April 1981 and dominates US headlines until Challenger breaks apart on STS-51-L in January 1986, freezing crewed US flight for thirty-two months. Arianespace arrives with Ariane, establishing Europe as a third pole.

Routine sets in. The Soviet Union industrializes spaceflight, sometimes flying close to a hundred missions a year, mostly Soyuz resupply runs to the new Salyut stations and Proton lifts of heavier payloads. The USA thins to a few headline missions: Skylab in 1973, Viking touching Mars in 1976, Voyager beginning its tour of the outer planets in 1977 atop a Titan. China and Japan each reach orbit on their own rockets for the first time.

Crewed flight begins. Yuri Gagarin reaches orbit on a Vostok in April 1961, the USA answers with Mercury and Gemini, and Saturn V carries Apollo 11 to the Moon by decade's end. The calendar fills in between with Thor and Delta flying weather, comms, and reconnaissance almost monthly. France slips into the club in 1965 aboard a Diamant, the first nation beyond the superpowers to reach orbit on its own.

The orbital era opens with a beep. The Soviet Union's R-7, an ICBM repurposed for orbit, lofts Sputnik in October 1957; the USA scrambles its scattered launcher fleet and answers with Explorer 1 four months later. Fewer than a dozen orbits are achieved between them before the decade ends, each one a geopolitical event.