The Space Dept. of research firm Airclaims Ltd. said that 2004 was the worst year since 1961 for the number of space launches. According to the company’s SpaceTrack database, launch numbers have been declining since the demise of the Soviet Union with the resulting loss of what it calls “Cold War-induced” military launches. The group noted that there were only 54 orbital launches in 2004 (including only 12 commercial geostationary satellite launches), down from 63 in 2003 and 65 in 2002.