Operator file · RU-163
Russian Aerospace Defence Forces
Russian Aerospace Defence Forces is a government launch operator based in Russia. It has flown 22 launches under its own name. 20 succeeded and 2 failed, a success rate of 90.9%. It has nothing on the schedule we can see right now.
Flight record
Launch statistics
These are launches under VKO’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, VKO is counted in whichever role the current schedule gives it.
Manifest role
No scheduled flight names VKO 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.
Upcoming launches
Manifest
VKO 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 launchesThe 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.
VKO in the archive
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.
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Common questions
- How many launches has Russian Aerospace Defence Forces flown?
- Russian Aerospace Defence Forces has flown 22 launches under its own name. 20 succeeded and 2 failed. That counts launches it flew itself, not missions or payloads it contributed to.
- What is Russian Aerospace Defence Forces's success rate?
- 90.9%. That's 20 successful flights out of 22 attempts. Its last 17 launches in a row have succeeded.
- When is Russian Aerospace Defence Forces's next launch?
- Russian Aerospace Defence Forces has nothing on the schedule EveryLaunch can see, which runs to 2039-12-31 00:00:00Z.
- Does Russian Aerospace Defence Forces fly its own rockets, or buy launches from another operator?
- Russian Aerospace Defence Forces has flown 22 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 Russian Aerospace Defence Forces based?
- Russia. Launch Library lists it as a government operator.