Introduction
Orbital launch by year templates are navboxes listing orbital launches (as opposed to suborbital launches which do not complete a full orbit) during that year. These navboxes include both successful and failed launches as well as separate orbital payloads and are located at the bottom of orbital spacecraft articles (such as Landsat 8) or articles of the Spaceflight by year series (such as 2001 in spaceflight).
Orbital launch by year templates span from 1957 with the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 to the present year. Users can use the overall Orbital launches by year template found at the bottom of this documentation to quickly access a given year's navbox.
Usage
To include an orbital launch by year navbox on an article, place the appropriate year's navbox at the bottom of the article, below Appendices sections (Works or publications, See also, Notes and references, Further reading, External links) and above Categories. For more information on navbox placement in a Wikipedia article, see the Layout section of the Wikipedia Manual of Style.
Within the navbox are twelve groups (group1 through group12) containing the name of the month fully spelled out (e.g. January or September). Under each month is a single list (list1 in January, list2 in February, etc.) which contains each launch and payload launched during that month bulleted.
Adding launches
Item Name. It is important to remember this navbox is to enumerate launches, not necessarily satellites. To enter a launch, type the primary payload name. Note the naming conventions section near the bottom of this page. Item names should be linked to the most specific article encompassing of that launch (e.g. Türksat 5B). If no specific article exists (e.g. FSW-2 4), link to class or program's article (e.g. Fanhui Shi Weixing). For example:
Batch Deployments. For batch deployments, where multiple identical (or likely identical) satellites are launched, place the number of satellites in that launch's batch in parentheses. When a range of satellites from a larger class is launched, list the class name and the range of satellites included in that launch (e.g. Yaogan 31 D–F). For example:
- Starlink G4-20 (51 satellites)
- Flock-1 (28 satellites)
- Yaogan 31 K–M (3 satellites)
Multiple Launches in Same Month. If multiple satellites of the same name or class are launched separately during the same month, use the times symbol (×) to indicate how many launches occurred that month. For example, five ÑuSat satellites were separately launched in April 2022. This item would be listed as:
- ÑuSat × 5
Multiple Payloads. When a single launch contains multiple payloads, separate the payloads by a comma instead entering a new list item. For example:
- RAISE-2, HIBARI, Z-Sat, DRUMS, TeikyoSat-4, ASTERISC, ARICA, NanoDragon, KOSEN-1
- Kosmos 2542, Kosmos 2543
Sub-Payloads. For launches containing payloads that themselves contain payloads (e.g. the LICIACube sub-satellite deployed from the DART satellite), place the sub-payload in parentheses. For example:
Item formatting
In order to allow quick visual identification and characterization of orbital launches, this navbox uses the following styles for list items and their separations.
- Crewed flights, wherein humans are onboard the spaceflight vehicle as it is launched, are underlined.
- Launch failures†, wherein a spaceflight vehicle is attempted to be launched but does not achieve orbit (due to failure during or after launch), are accompanied by the dagger mark.
When a launched payload falls into one of the following categories, it should following the naming convention found below.
| Series | Naming convention |
|---|---|
| USAF-designated "USA" satellites | Use only the USA designation (e.g. USA-35, USA-293) and link to the specific article if one exists (e.g. USA-298) or the article List of USA satellites if one does not. Do not use the NRO launch designation (NROL-2) or project name (KH-11 12). |
| Kosmos satellites | Similar to USA satellites, list Kosmos satellites like "Kosmos-2251". Do not use the type of satellite (Strela-2). Link to the specific article if one exists (e.g.) or the article Kosmos (satellite) if one does not. |
Note: Navboxes for earlier years may not reflect this current standard. Edits made to update these navboxes are to the standard listed here are appreciated.