Maiden Launches of 2022

[Vahe231991]

Last year was a surprise disappointment because some unexpected delays meant that the SLS and Vulcan were denied the chance to carry out their maiden launches in 2021. Nonetheless, South Korea got to carry out another flight of its first-ever space rocket since the early 2010s, the Nuri, even though the first orbital launch of the Nuri didn't exactly make it to the intended orbit. Regardless, 2022 promises a lot of historic firsts in rocket innovation.

Safe bets for 2022:

- First orbital launch of Angara 1.2
- SLS
- Starship/Super Heavy
- Vulcan

Announced for 2022:

- Ariane 6
- H3

Maybe:
 
- New Glenn

[jebbo]

There are a number of others notionally in 2022:
- Relativity Space, Terran-1 (US)
- ABL Space Systems, RS1 (US)
- Rocket Factory Augsburg, RFA One (DE)
- ISAR Aerospace, Spectrum (DE)
- Skyrora, Skyrora XL (UK)
- Orbex, Prime (UK)
- i-Space, Hyperbola-2 (CN)
- Landspace, Zhuque-2 (CN)
- LinkSpace, NewLine-1 (CN)

Some are more likely than others, but I expect a non-zero number from the list to launch in 2022

--- Tony

[Rebel44]

Last year was a surprise disappointment because some unexpected delays meant that the SLS and Vulcan were denied the chance to carry out their maiden launches in 2021. Nonetheless, South Korea got to carry out another flight of its first-ever space rocket since the early 2010s, the Nuri, even though the first orbital launch of the Nuri didn't exactly make it to the intended orbit. Regardless, 2022 promises a lot of historic firsts in rocket innovation.

Safe bets for 2022:

- First orbital launch of Angara 1.2
- SLS
- Starship/Super Heavy
- Vulcan

Announced for 2022:

- Ariane 6
- H3

Maybe:
 
- New Glenn

I don't think Vulcan is a safe bet - both its engine and its initial payloads have been seriously delayed and if Eric Berger is correct, ULA won't get flight-worthy BE-4s before Q2 2022.