Which countries have launched most rockets into space?

The article on Ecomist was bit a momnet of proud and pushed me to think.

Do we have lift-off?
Aug 19th 2009From Economist.com
Which countries have launched most rockets into space?

Most launches are made from countries with the well-established space
programmes. As of last year, Russia had sent 245 rockets with payloads into
orbit successfully since 1999, compared with America's 218, according to data
from Futron, a technology consultancy. China now surpasses Europe as a base for
spacecraft launches, while India and Japan send up a few every year. Israel has
also put two rockets into space.

I also saw bleow article:

Monday, April 20, 2009

First Indian Student and Spy Sat launched (http://sedsindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-indian-student-and-spy-sat.html"
Yesterday saw the first launch after the successful October 22 launch of Chandrayaan 1. PSLV C-12 carried the RISAT-2 with ANUSAT [PDF]for piggyback. Both satellites were launched from Sriharikota on the PSLV that took off at 6:45 am in the morning, local time on April 20, 2009 and were successfully placed in orbit by the PSLV on its fourteenth trip

This makes me feel..........in India the development at Higher level reaching out to root level of R&D pyramid.