The launch-by-launch census was not completed — the source is verified, the rows are not yet obtained
The question asked: every orbital launch from 1957 to today, listing the year, the launch site, the operating bloc and whether the site is still active.
This audit covers 8 source pages around one authoritative dataset — Jonathan McDowell's GCAT, release 1.8.5 (2026 Aug 8), data updated through 2026 Aug 21 — and maps each requested field to what the source verifiably provides.
Result is incomplete. The machine-readable Orbital Launch Log file was not obtainable in this run, so no per-launch rows, launch counts, bloc assignments or site-active flags appear below. Nothing here is fabricated.
Requested fields against verified source coverage
verified — field defined in the GCAT schema
needs a classification rule before it can be answered
unresolved — data not obtained this run
Requested
Nearest GCAT field
Status
What the audit established
GCAT states it includes all successful orbital launches and all confirmed failed orbital attempts, with at most a handful unknown —
planet4589.orgThe Orbital Launch Log schema defines Launch_Date, Launch_Site, Launch_Agency, LVState and Launch_Code, so year and site are directly answerable once the file is retrieved —
planet4589.org'Operating bloc' is not a GCAT field: it must be derived from Launch_Agency and LVState under an explicit rule, such as Cold War Soviet/US-aligned alignment versus plain launch-agency state —
planet4589.orgIndependent analysts also treat GCAT as the traceable base for launch counts, noting that headline space figures are rarely traceable to a definition —
spacepolicies.org
Source pages examined
| Page | Role in the audit | Link |
|---|
Research-status audit, not a launch census. 8 source rows examined: 1 GCAT launch-list description, 1 current Orbital Launch Log schema, 6 discovery pages (including mirrors of the schema at release 1.8.0 and secondary material). GCAT release 1.8.5 (2026 Aug 8), data update 2026 Aug 21. Status marks whether a requested field is defined in the verified source, needs a classification rule, or is unresolved because the launch-log file itself was not obtained. No launch-level rows were available, so none are shown.