Global Space Activity Dashboard, Version 2

Hi!

I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen any newsletter from me. For those who are new and don’t know, I don’t write analyses very often any more…primarily because I’m working full-time with wonderful colleagues from the UK consulate (and beyond) and great people from the world of space. Many times, those same people are in the space industry, which makes my job not just more interesting, but personally satisfying.

However, that is a story for another week. This particular message is to let you know that I’ve made some significant updates to the Global Space Activity Dashboard. I made the changes based on what I thought more people might be interested in.

(And, like forgetting attachments, I forgot the link. So here it is: https://www.illdefined.space/globalspace/)

It still consists of three dashboards: Past Week of Global Space Activity, Global Space Launch Summary, and Spacecraft Deployment Summary. But they’ve changed quite a bit. First, I’ve made each page more interrelated. If you click on one thing, it will affect the rest of the information on the page, bringing up relevant information about the thing you clicked on. If you click on the same one thing again, it will revert to the initial reporting state. If that confuses you, just take a look at the short video below.

The Changes. THE CHANGES!!

The Past Week page (below) has changed the least. It still shows the last seven days (including today) of launch activity, as well as the related spacecraft deployments. The Successful Launches table remains, as does the Successful Launches from… map and Successful Orbital Launches bar chart. I’ve added Sector Serviced by and Spacecraft deployment share to the bottom.

I’ve changed the remaining two dashboards significantly.

For the Global Space Launch Summary (below), Annual Successful Orbital Launches and Successful Orbital Launches (by Rocket) remain. However, now there is a Running Launch Total Difference calculator that shows changes in launch activity during previous years up to the same day in those years in comparison to the same period this year. So, you see 2025’s total, up through May 6, 2025, and the difference between launches of that period and this one. Ditto for 2021 and 2017. I figure it helps highlight and compare trends.

I also added the spaceport regions with updated launches per region. I know some sound weird, but…those are the regions from which orbital launches are conducted. The data in the graphs, table, and tree map are interactive (again, please watch the short video above). If No Data shows up in the Running total, it’s because perhaps those rockets didn’t exist, they hadn’t been launched up to that point, or some other reason.

The only chart that remains (kind of) on the Spacecraft Deployment Summary (below) is the Deployed SC by Operator table. On thinking through things, I figured knowing which nation has spacecraft manufacturers (and how many of those manufacturers’ spacecraft have been deployed) was much more useful. At least it is to me. The Estimated Total Mass Deployed by Launch Vehicle bar chart is new as well, providing a running total of mass deployed per rocket system.

And the Estimated Mass-to-Orbit donut graph provides a slightly different perspective. It shows that while a nation’s manufacturers might have a lot of spacecraft in orbit, if they are within the “Others” slice, then those spacecraft are probably very small. This does not necessarily mean the smaller spacecraft are useless, just they are likely more compromised than larger mass spacecraft. On the flip side, larger spacecraft (and the resulting higher mass share) might show a nation’s manufacturers are relying on less advanced miniaturized technology.

You’ll probably notice a “No Data” category in both tables. That’s because I’m still re-entering my 2026 data and not all spacecraft have had useful details appended to them. I’ll get there, but “No Data” will probably pop up every now and then–especially for rideshare launches.

And that’s it! All the changes. Hopefully some of you will find this as or more useful than I think it is. I’ll be adding more spacecraft data from my previous years’ collections, but it will take time. I’m also toying around with the idea of adding a fourth page–a Space Industry Playground which will be full of adjustable information. But again, that will require more older spacecraft information, so that won’t happen in the next few months.

What do you think about it? What might be more interesting and useful? Comments are welcome!