Back in time
Open the live mapMissile launches since 1942
Ballistic and other missile launches logged by the astronomer Jonathan McDowell, from Germany’s V-2 tests in 1942 to this year, each placed at the site it was launched from.
What you see
- Each launch as an amber mark at its launch site, all at one size.
- Where a view holds more than 2,000 they gather into counted bubbles; zoom in to see each one.
- Click one for the missile, the force that launched it, the site and whether it succeeded.
- Opened from this page, the map plays 1955 to 1975.
Where the data comes from
- GCATJonathan McDowell’s General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects, its launch log for missiles: vehicle, agency, site, apogee and outcome.
GCAT is updated as launches happen; TAKIP takes it when the set is imported again.
Good to know
- Three in four were launched from the United States, Russia or Kazakhstan, where the Soviet Union’s ranges lay.
- Not only tests: GCAT also logs launches by forces at war, among them about 600 from Yemen by the Houthi movement.
- Nearly one launch in ten has no known outcome, and some sites are only the likely ones, as the source marks them.
The first recorded here in each decade
- A-413 Jun 1942 · Missile test
- Hermes A-119 May 1950 · Missile test
- R-12 — 8K63 UBP1960 · Missile test
- MSBS M013 — V71970 · Missile test
- MSBS M201980 · Missile test
- DF-11 — Test launch1990 · Missile test
- Minuteman 2 — MSLS IFT-419 Jan 2000 · Missile test
- Chang Zheng 2C ? — Reentry test2010 · Missile test
- Qiam-1 — Qiam-2?7 Jan 2020 · Missile test
Goes well with
Rocket launches since 1945About 7,400 orbital launches from Sputnik in 1957 to today and 52,000 suborbital rockets since 1945, from Jonathan McDowell’s launch log, each at its site.Nuclear explosions, 1945 to 1998The 2,051 nuclear explosions from the Trinity test in 1945 to Pakistan’s tests in 1998 on one map, test by test, each sized by its yield in kilotons.
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