There were 97 successful rocket launches out of 102 total launches, which gives us a success rate of 95% — not perfect, but not too shabby either!

So, who won the Space Race in 2019?  If you guessed China, you’d be correct.  According to Gunter Krebs’ careful tally, China has launched 34 rockets.  Space enthusiasts on Wikipedia agree with this number. (And yes, I know, I shouldn’t use Wikipedia as a first source but there’s just so much to keep track of!)

Now, depending on how you tally up launches, who comes in second and third can vary.

If you go by spaceport, China is still in the lead.  Russia comes in second place with 22 launches, followed by the US with 21 launches.

But wait!!  If you tally everything up by the rocket’s country of origin, the numbers change!  RocketLab’s Electron rockets are manufactured in the US, so those 6 rocket launches get added to update America’s total to 27 and boost them to second place.  And those Soyuz rockets that Arianespace launches from Kourou? Those are manufactured in Russia, so Russia’s tally gets a small boost to 25.

Sources:

• Orbital Launches of 2019 (Gunter’s Space Page)
• 2019 in Spaceflight (Wikipedia)