Operator file · US-161
United States Air Force
United States Air Force is a government launch operator based in United States of America, founded in 1947. It has flown 1,078 launches under its own name. 972 succeeded and 106 failed, a success rate of 90.2%. It has nothing on the schedule we can see right now.
Flight record
Launch statistics
These are launches under USAF’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, USAF is counted in whichever role the current schedule gives it.
Manifest role
No scheduled flight names USAF 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 USAF
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947.
Upcoming launches
Manifest
USAF 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.
USAF 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 United States Air Force flown?
- United States Air Force has flown 1,078 launches under its own name. 972 succeeded and 106 failed. That counts launches it flew itself, not missions or payloads it contributed to.
- What is United States Air Force's success rate?
- 90.2%. That's 972 successful flights out of 1,078 attempts. Its last 68 launches in a row have succeeded.
- When is United States Air Force's next launch?
- United States Air Force has nothing on the schedule EveryLaunch can see, which runs to 2039-12-31 00:00:00Z.
- Does United States Air Force fly its own rockets, or buy launches from another operator?
- United States Air Force has flown 1,078 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 United States Air Force based?
- United States of America. Launch Library lists it as a government operator, founded in 1947.