First Satellites by Country 2024

The most famous satellite is easily Sputnik 1, the first satellite to make it to space. It launched from Baikonur on October 4, 1957, when Russia was still the Soviet Union. Several months later, the second satellite made it to space: The United States' Explorer 1, which launched from Cape Canaveral on February 1, 1958. These successful launches added energy to the space race as the two countries competed to be the first to put a man in space and then on the moon.

It's sometimes easy to forget that the importance of satellites lasted well beyond the Cold War. Although it has been over 66 years since the launch of Sputnik 1, some countries have only recently launched their first satellites. For example, Vatican City launched SpeiSat on June 12, 2023, and Albania launched Albania 1 / Albania 2 on January 3, 2023. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Moldova, and Armenia both launched their first satellites in 2022, and Tunisia, Myanmar, Paraguay, Kuwait, and Bahrain all launched their first successful satellites in 2021.

Another change from the 1950s is that not all countries are competing with each other. There have been several instances of countries teaming up to launch satellites together. A great example of this is the ST-1, which launched from Kourou on August 25, 1998. This satellite was a joint effort between Taiwan and Singapore, and was the first successful satellite launch for both countries. Another example is the ESRO 2B, which launched from Vandenberg on May 17, 1968, a joint project of Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark.

Another point of interest is that while many countries have launched their own satellites, not all countries have the capability for a space launch within their borders. The launch site of ESRO 2B, Vandenberg, also launched the Vatican's SpeiSat, South Africa's SUNSAT, Canada's Alouette 1, and Jordan's JY1-SAT. China's space center in Xichang was the launch site for the first satellite of Bolivia, Laos, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and Pakistan. Slovakia, Latvia, and Austria all launched their first satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Center in India.