README.md

---
license: cc0-1.0
pretty_name: "Launch Vehicles Database"
language:
  - en
description: "Orbital and suborbital launch vehicles from around the world, sourced from Wikidata. Covers every space launch vehicle recorded in Wikidata's structured knowledge base, including historical rockets, a"
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - rockets
  - launch-vehicles
  - orbital-mechanics
  - wikidata
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
size_categories:
  - n<1K
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/launch_vehicles.parquet
    default: true
---

# Launch Vehicles Database


<div align="center">
  <img src="banner.jpg" alt="An orbital sunrise illuminates the Earth's atmosphere, seen from the ISS" width="400">
  <p><em>Credit: NASA</em></p>
</div>


*Part of a [dataset collection](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/orbital-mechanics-datasets-69c24caca4ab3934c9856994) on Hugging Face.*

## Dataset description

Orbital and suborbital launch vehicles from around the world, sourced from Wikidata. Covers every space launch vehicle recorded in Wikidata's structured knowledge base, including historical rockets, active workhorses, and vehicles under development.

From the German V-2 through the Saturn V to the Falcon 9 and Starship, launch vehicles have defined humanity's access to space. This dataset draws from Wikidata's community-curated records (class Q697175: space launch vehicle), maintained by the WikiProject Spaceflight community. It includes physical dimensions, payload capacities, flight history dates, and operational status.

Wikidata coverage varies -- some vehicles lack physical specs or payload data. Columns with less than 5% data coverage are automatically dropped during pipeline processing.


This dataset is suitable for **tabular classification** tasks.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description | Sample | Null % |
|--------|------|-------------|--------|--------|
| `wikidata_id` | str | Wikidata entity ID (e.g. 'Q14522') linking to https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14522; use for enrichment joins with other Wikidata-sourced datasets | Q377174 | 0.0% |
| `name` | str | Primary name of the launch vehicle (e.g. 'Saturn V', 'Falcon 9'); canonical English form as recorded in Wikidata | 2003 Alcântara VLS accident | 0.0% |
| `manufacturer` | str | Organization that designed and built the vehicle (e.g. 'Boeing', 'SpaceX', 'Roscosmos'); null if manufacturer information is absent from Wikidata | AgniKul Cosmos | 41.5% |
| `country` | str | Country of origin using full English name (e.g. 'United States of America', 'Russia', 'China'); reflects the operating nation at time of primary use | India | 34.0% |
| `height_m` | float64 | Total vehicle height from base to payload fairing tip, in metres; null when not recorded in Wikidata; tallest vehicles exceed 100 m (Saturn V: 110.6 m) | 25.0 | 92.9% |
| `mass_kg` | float64 | Gross liftoff mass (fully fueled with payload) in kilograms; null when not recorded; ranges from ~10,000 kg (small launchers) to ~3,000,000 kg (Saturn V) | 48000.0 | 93.9% |
| `payload_leo_kg` | float64 | Maximum payload mass deliverable to low Earth orbit (approx 200-2000 km altitude) in kilograms; null for vehicles whose LEO capacity is unrecorded or not applicable | 300.0 | 87.7% |
| `first_flight` | str | Date of maiden flight in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD); null for vehicles that never flew or where the date is unrecorded in Wikidata | 1985-10-03 | 93.9% |

## Quick stats

- **212** launch vehicles from **12** countries
- **0** active, **0** retired
- Tallest vehicle: Long March 10 (90.0 m)
- Heaviest LEO payload: Sea Dragon (498,952 kg)
- Top countries: United States (108), Soviet Union (14), Russia (5), People's Republic of China (3), South Korea (2)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/launch-vehicles", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()
```

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/launch-vehicles", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# List all vehicles by country
print(df[["name", "country", "manufacturer"]].head(20))

# Vehicles with known height
if "height_m" in df.columns:
    tall = df.dropna(subset=["height_m"]).nlargest(10, "height_m")
    print(tall[["name", "country", "height_m"]])

# Payload capacity distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
leo = df.dropna(subset=["payload_leo_kg"])
plt.hist(leo["payload_leo_kg"], bins=30, edgecolor="black", alpha=0.7)
plt.xlabel("Payload to LEO (kg)")
plt.ylabel("Number of Vehicles")
plt.title("Launch Vehicle LEO Payload Distribution")
plt.show()
```

## Data source

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q697175

## Related datasets

- [juliensimon/space-missions](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-missions)

- [juliensimon/space-launch-log](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-launch-log)

- [juliensimon/spacecraft-database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/spacecraft-database)

- [juliensimon/constellation-census](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/constellation-census)

- [juliensimon/gcat](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gcat)

- [juliensimon/gcat-satcat](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gcat-satcat)

- [juliensimon/launch-cost](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/launch-cost)

> If you find this dataset useful, please consider [giving it a like](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/launch-vehicles) on Hugging Face. It helps others discover it.

## About the author

Created by [Julien Simon](https://julien.org) — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the [Space Datasets](https://julien.org/datasets) collection.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{launch_vehicles,
  title = {Launch Vehicles Database},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/launch-vehicles},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}
```

## License

[CC0-1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)