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RAE

Operator file · GB-1005

Royal Aircraft Establishment

United Kingdom · Government · EST. 1904

Royal Aircraft Establishment is a government launch operator based in United Kingdom, founded in 1904. It has flown 2 launches under its own name. 1 succeeded and 1 failed, a success rate of 50.0%. It has nothing on the schedule we can see right now.

SourceLAUNCH LIBRARY 2
Window reaches2039-12-31 00:00:00Z
Page generated2026-11-11 09:49:05Z

Flight record

Launch statistics

ON RECORD
Total launches2
Successful1
Failed1
Success rate50.0%
Consecutive successes1
Scheduled0
Founded1904

These are launches under Royal Aircraft Establishment’s own name in The Space Devs’ Launch Library. They don’t count missions or payloads. A spacecraft that flew on someone else’s rocket counts for the operator that flew it.

Operator or customer

An operator owns the rocket and runs the count, and the launch schedule filters by operator. A customer pays for the mission, supplies the payload and buys the ride. Some organisations are both. Below, Royal Aircraft Establishment is counted in whichever role the current schedule gives it.

Manifest role

NONE FILED
Flying as operator0
Named as customer0
Window reaches2039-12-31 00:00:00Z
Scheduled (register total)0

No scheduled flight names Royal Aircraft Establishment with someone else flying it.

How we count it: a scheduled launch counts as a customer flight when this organisation’s name or abbreviation is in the launch name, mission name or programme, and someone else is flying it. We don’t search mission descriptions, and we only see the schedule as far as it goes, which is 2039-12-31 00:00:00Z. So treat both counts as a minimum.

About Royal Aircraft Establishment

The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.

Upcoming launches

Manifest

EMPTY

Royal Aircraft Establishment has nothing on the schedule we can see, which runs to 2039-12-31 00:00:00Z. Its missions show up here once a launch date is published.

All upcoming launches

The label on each flight says how exact its launch time is. If the date is only known to the month, you’ll see the month and no countdown. A weather go-probability only shows when Launch Library has one for that flight. EveryLaunch doesn’t work it out.

From NASA's public image library and Wikimedia Commons. Each photo shows the credit its licence asks for and links back to where it came from.

Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 1
Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 1Great War Observer · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Royal Aircraft Factory NE1 1st prototype
Royal Aircraft Factory NE1 1st prototypeCredited Royal Aerospace Establishment, Neg No 2736 · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗
Royal Aircraft Factory BS1 003
Royal Aircraft Factory BS1 003Royal Aircraft Establishment - credited as RAE 71197; Crown Copyright · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗

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Common questions

How many launches has Royal Aircraft Establishment flown?
Royal Aircraft Establishment has flown 2 launches under its own name. 1 succeeded and 1 failed. That counts launches it flew itself, not missions or payloads it contributed to.
What is Royal Aircraft Establishment's success rate?
50.0%. That's 1 successful flights out of 2 attempts. Its last 1 launches in a row have succeeded.
When is Royal Aircraft Establishment's next launch?
Royal Aircraft Establishment has nothing on the schedule EveryLaunch can see, which runs to 2039-12-31 00:00:00Z.
Does Royal Aircraft Establishment fly its own rockets, or buy launches from another operator?
Royal Aircraft Establishment has flown 2 launches under its own name. It isn't the operator on any scheduled flight we can see. An operator owns the rocket and runs the count. A customer pays for the mission, supplies the payload and buys the ride. The operator filter on the launch schedule only lists operators, so a well-known agency can own a mission and still not show up there.
Where is Royal Aircraft Establishment based?
United Kingdom. Launch Library lists it as a government operator, founded in 1904.