Global Launch Site Atlas
Map every active orbital launch pad on Earth.
The brief
Build a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of all currently-active orbital launch pads worldwide (~20 sites). Each feature has properties: name, country (ISO 3166), operator, status (active/proposed/retired), vehicles flown, first orbital launch year, latest orbital launch year, latitude, longitude. Style the layer in QGIS by operator and country. Compose a publication-quality print layout: title, legend, scale bar, north arrow, attribution. Export the final map as a PDF at A2 size.
From Hawaiʻi — what this capstone asks of you
Your atlas will include PMRF Barking Sands on Kauaʻi — the quiet Pacific launch site many people don't know exists. As you compile the global pad list, ask yourself: who decides which sites count as 'major'? Whose pads get prestige, and whose get footnotes? The atlas you build is also an argument about how the world is organized.
Rubric
- GeoJSON contains ≥18 active orbital launch pads with all required properties populated
- Property values are correct and citable (UN Office for Outer Space Affairs / launch-provider primary sources)
- Coordinate precision is at least 4 decimal places for latitude/longitude
- QGIS layout includes title, legend, scale bar, north arrow, data-source attribution
- PDF is publication-quality (300 dpi, no overlapping labels)
Deliverable
launch-sites.geojson + atlas.pdf, both committed to your personal GitHub fork of academy-labs
Dataset
https://github.com/ops-sketch/academy-labs/tree/main/capstones/01-launch-site-atlas
Earned credential
Successful completion of this capstone (all rubric items met) mints the Certified Ground Station Operator certificate at /academy/verify/{certId}/.