GCAT: General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects

The Space Launch Origins Catalog

GCAT Release 1.5.7 (2024 Oct 18) | Data Update 2024 Nov 28

Introduction

Launch Origin

Each rocket launch in the General Catalog has an associated launch origin. The `launch origin' generalizes the concept of a launch site, because nothing is ever simple. It consists of:

• the Platform (optional): either a ship or an airplane from which the rocket is launched. (The platforms are discussed in detail in a separate section.
• the Launch Pad or Launch Point (LP for short, unifying the two terms) where the rocket ignition occurs; LPs are always associated with
• a Launch Site which groups together related LPs. However, for an air launch, we consider two Launch Site/LP pairs: the location of the departure runway where the aircraft takes off, and the location where the rocket drops from the plane and ignites. This latter pair we call:
• the Ascent Site and
• the Ascent Point. For other launches we consider the Ascent Site and Ascent Point to be identical with the Launch Site and Launch Point. (Ideally, for sea launches one would track the ship port departure point and distinguish it from the launch itself in the same way, but usually that information is not known).

If the Platform is a ship on a research cruise and the launch point is not a regular (reused) point, the Launch Site (and the Ascent Site) is the expedition code. Ascent Points for airplanes and ships near an existing launch site and under its range authority, may be grouped together either under that launch site or a special related ocean-specific launch site. For example, we distinguish between the Cape Canaveral land-based pads at site CC and the air and sea launches off the Cape coast at site ETR (Eastern Test Range); this makes the LPs for site CC geographically compact, which can be helpful for display.

Associated with each Launch (or Ascent) Site is an implicit LP with the same name as the Site, for launches where we know the Site but not the particular pad.

The association of LPs with Sites is usually obvious for the land based pads at major launch sites. However for remaining LPs it is somewhat arbitrary and I have not been terribly consistent.

Launch Sites database

The information needed to describe the existence, time-dependent nomenclature, and location of a launch site and its launch pads is similar to that needed for an organization. The database has two files, one for the Sites and one for the individual LPs. The format is almost the same for each file.

• Site contains the org code for the launch site.
• Code LP file: contains the org code for the LP; Sites file: is blank, since the Site is the org code.
• UCode Unified org code for the entry. The Code and UCode are not globally unique for launch pads, but are unique when combined with their Site values.

For example White Sands Army Launch Area 2 has LP entries with org code values ALA2 (1958-1960) and LC36 (1960-). Each LP entry has UCode ALA2 and Site value WS. The Site value corresponds to an LS entry which also has Site value WS, tying the launch pad to its launch site.

As another example, the LP org code value LC2 is not unique; Site code PF and Site code CC each have an LP with org code LC2. Internally in software searches are made by concatenating the Site and LP codes, e.g. "CC LC2".

In other respects the Sites and LP databases are identical in structure with the Orgs one. The Sites records are:

• Site - the Org Code for this launch site (or, for this time phase of this launch site, if it has multiple phases - i.e. changed its name).
• Code - a blank entry (for back compatibility).
• UCode - the unified Org Code for all phases for this launch site.
• Type - the launch site type (LS, LC, LZ).

  
  There are three types of Site:

  • the Launch Zone (LZ), a geographically more or less compact zone grouping air and/or sea LPs;
  • the Launch Cruise (LC), a temporally compact but geographically extended zone (possibly over multiple oceans) representing a research cruise expedition with multiple sea LPs;
  • the Launch Site (LS), for everything else, i.e. land based launch sites.
  Additional reserved site types for future use are
  • LNZ - Landing zone
  • TGT - Target impact location, e.g. for missiles
• StateCode - Org Code for the nation-state, IGO or other polity with responsibility for the launch site. This is normally the country in which the site is located. Type of the state code must be CY, IGO or AP, and the code must occur in the Organizations Database.
• TStart and TStop - start and stop time of this launch site phase. Given in year, month, day format (actually Vague Date format. )

  
  Null values are indicated by a dash or an asterisk. Null TStart means the start date of the organization is unknown; Null Stop means that the organization is still in operation, or assumed to be so.

• ShortName - a short ASCII name of the site suitable for use in labels or tables, nominally a transliterated representation of the name in the host country's own language
• Name - a full name (up to 80 ASCII characters). Transliterated full name of the launch site, in host country's language. Where known, this is the formal name of the launch site.
• Location - City and locality of the launch site. In many cases this is given in the form UrbanArea-Suburb, e.g "Los Angeles-El Segundo".
• Longitude, Latitude, Error. - The values are geographic longitude (east-positive) and latitude in decimal degrees.

  
  The error field gives the uncertainty of the launch site location. Note that when a launch site contains multiple launch pads or launch points, the position given for the site is a bit arbitrary, and you should consult the LP (launch points) database for precise positions.

• Parent, when nonempty, provides an Org Code of the organization operating the launch site.
• ShortEName - Short name in English. Useful for summary information. Can be omitted when ShortName is itself English.
• Ename - Long (full) name in English.
• Group - At present, this field is used to group together ocean launch sites, lunar sites, and some unknown V2 launch areas. The field is likely to be repurposed in future releases.
• UName - Unicode version of full name in organization's parent language.

Launch Points database

The Launch Points records are:

• Site - the Org UCode for the launch site of which this LP is a part. Every LP is part of a Launch Site.
• Code - an Org code for this LP (or for this phase of this LP, for LPs with multiple time phases).
• UCode - the unified Org Code for all phases for this LP.
• Type - the launch point type is always LP
• StateCode - this field is blank for LPs in the current release; the LP is considered to inherit the StateCode of its Launch Site.
• TStart and TStop - start and stop time of this phase. Given in year, month, day format (actually Vague Date format. )

  
  Null values are indicated by a dash or an asterisk. Null TStart means the start date of the organization is unknown; Null Stop means that the organization is still in operation, or assumed to be so.

• ShortName - a short ASCII name of the site suitable for use in labels or tables. often a concatenation of the Site and LP codes.
• Name - a full name (up to 80 ASCII characters). Transliterated full name of the launch point, in host country's language.
• Location - City and locality of the launch point. In many cases this is given in the form UrbanArea-Suburb, e.g "Los Angeles-El Segundo".
• Longitude, Latitude, Error. - The values are geographic longitude (east-positive) and latitude in decimal degrees.

  
  The error field gives the uncertainty of the launch point location. In contrast to the Organizations database, I have attempted to find as accurate positions as possible for the LP values.

• Parent, when nonempty, provides an Org Code of the organization operating the launch site.
• ShortEName - Reserved for short name in English. Not used in the current release but retained for compatibility with the Orgs database format.
• Ename - Reserved for long name in English. Not used in the current release but retained for compatibility with the Orgs database format.
• UName - Unicode version of full name in organization's parent language. Not currently supplied for the LP database, but I might fill it in in a future release.