The past 12 months have seen many historic and tragic moments in space exploration. From the obvious impact of the loss of space shuttle Columbia February 1 to the resounding success of the maiden Chinese manned spaceflight in October, space enthusiasts and industry insiders alike will have a lot to remember from 2003.

Other headline stories in space last year included Earth's assault on Mars, with no fewer than five spacecraft targeting the Red Planet. A massive explosion at Brazil's Alcantara launch pad during routine pre-launch tests killed 21 workers in August. Here's a look at the year by the numbers.

There were 61 launches to orbit in 2003, one down from a total of 62 last year. 2001 saw just 58 orbital launches, while there were 82 space shots in 2000.

The most active launch site in 2003 was Cape Canaveral, which hosted 17 launches to orbit. A close second place finisher was the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which racked up 14 blastoffs.

Rounding out the worldwide rankings was the Plesetsk Cosmodrome of Russia with seven, Vandenberg Air Force Base with six, the European spaceport in Kourou with four, the Sea Launch Odyssey launch platform and the Chinese Xichang launch center with three a piece, the Indian Sriharitoka and China's Jiuquan base with two, and Tanegashima and Kagoshima, Japan, along with Taiyuan, China, with one successful launch each.

The United States was the most prolific space-faring nation with 23 orbital launches from American soil, with Russia following close behind with 21 -- combining missions originating from Plesetsk and Baikonur.

The most active launcher family in 2003 was the Soyuz, with variants of the venerable booster taking off and reaching orbit 10 times. Nine Delta rockets went skyward, followed by the Chinese Long March family with six launches. The Atlas and Proton boosters each had five flights, while Titan and Ariane rockets followed with four each. Sea Launch conducted three missions, and the space shuttle only flew once in 2003, during the ill-fated STS-107 mission in January.

The commercial launch industry suffered a reduction in its number of launches in 2003, with roughly 13 missions successfully carried out for private enterprises. In 2002, 24 commercial launches took place around the globe. Earlier years saw 16 launches to orbit in 2001 and 35 commercial flights in 2000, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Four manned space launches occurred in 2003, including one flight of NASA's space shuttle, China's first manned Shenzhou mission, and two Soyuz launches to the international space station.

Five launches placed their payloads on a course to escape the firm grasp of Earth's gravity. Japan's Muses-C asteroid explorer in May, Europe's Mars Express and NASA's Spirit rover in June, NASA's Opportunity rover in July, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in August all left Earth orbit bound for other destinations.

Two failures in 2003 occurred in September and November when a prototype Chinese orbital launcher failed in a top secret flight, and when a Japanese H-2A rocket crashed into the Pacific Ocean with a pair of clandestine spy satellites.

See our Mission Report index for coverage of the 2003 launches. Our Columbia coverage can be found here.