China makes world's most space launches in 2021

The country’s Long March series carrier rockets, Kuaizhou series carrier rockets, as well as those developed by private space firms have made 55 launches and sent over 100 spacecraft into space.

Among the missions, 48 launches were made by the Long March series carrier rockets, all successful. It was the first time in history that the Long March series completed more than 40 launch missions within a year. The 400th launch of the series also came last year.

The Long March-5B, Long March-2F and Long March-7 completed the missions for China’s space station construction in five launches, carrying the Tianhe core module of the space station, two batches of astronauts, and two cargo spacecraft into space.

The Long March-3A rocket family, also known as the "gold medal rocket" family, completed 12 launches last year, and all of the launches were successful.

In 2021, the in-orbit construction of China’s space station commenced. Two batches of Chinese astronauts entered the space station, and some of them are expected to have a record-setting six-month stay in orbit.

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe, launched by the Long March-5 carrier rocket in 2020, landed on the red planet last year, too, and successfully orbited the planet.

On Oct. 14, 2021, China’s first solar observation satellite Xihe entered its planned orbit, which marked that the country has officially entered the era of solar exploration.

China, making high frequency of space launches regularly, still maintains a high success rate.

In 2018, 109 of the 114 space launches recorded in the world were successful, while China scored a 38 for 39 success rate. A year later, a total of 103 launches were made around the world and 95 succeeded. China, in the same year, made success in 31 of its 34 launches.

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