I apologize for the overloading of the Groups column with totally different meanings
in the orbital and suborbital cases. This denormalization was done purely for reasons
of compact formatting in my internal representation.
The launch service code
encodes the type of launch service (govt., fully commercial etc.) and
customer (govt./commercial). To be used for statistical analysis of
commercial launch activity. The intent here is to capture some nuance
around 'commercial launches' - is the money really coming from
commercial activity or is it just more government space investment with
a different contracting model?
The launch service code is of the form
LSTor
LST/CTor
LST/CT+CTwhere LST is the launch service type and CT is the satellite customer type, as listed below.
The LST codes (launch service types) are:
| LST Code | Launch Service Type | Default CT |
|---|---|---|
| G | Government rocket | G |
| CG | Commercial rocket operated on behalf of govt. | G |
| CO | Commercially operated government-developed rocket | C |
| CX | Commercial rocket and payload but end customer is govt | C |
| C | Fully commercial rocket | C |
The CT codes (satellite customer types) are
| CT code | Customer type |
|---|---|
| G | Government (of the rocket operator's country) |
| OG | Other government (foreign to the rocket operator) |
| C | Commercial |
We distinguish between the government of the rocket operator's country
and other governments. For example, Thor Delta is a US rocket so if
it carries a US govt payload that's CT = G, but if it carries a Canadian
govt payload that's CT = OG.
Special cases include ESA/Arianespace rockets,
where ESA, the EU, and individual ESA member state governments all count as 'G';
for Rocket Lab both US and NZ count as 'G'.
If the CT is the default CT for that LST, it can be omitted. Up to two
different CTs can apply to a different launch.
Example 1: G - Government rocket with govt payload
Example 2: CG/OG+C - Commercial rocket operated on behalf of govt,
carrying payload(s) for another govt and commercial payload(s).