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
The prediction that the first SLS launch and first orbital Angara 1.2 launch would occur in 2022 turned out to be correct, although the H3 did not fly until last month, and the first flights of the Starship and Vulcan have been postponed to this year.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.
Launches(Failures)
First 12/31/22 3/31/23
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Angara 1.2 1(0) 2(0) 2(0)
CZ-6A 1(0) 2(0) 2(0)
Jielong 3 1(0) 1(0) 1(0)
SLS 1(0) 1(0) 1(0)
SSLV 1(1) 1(1) 2(1)
Vega-C 1(0) 2(1) 2(1)
ZK-1A 1(0) 1(0) 1(0)
ZQ-2 1(1) 1(1) 1(1)
RS-1 1(1)
H-3 1(1)
Terran-1 1(1)
---------------------------------------
8(2) 11(3) 15(5)