One year there was a total of 69 commercial and noncommercial orbital launches worldwide. In addition, the number of noncommercial orbital launches was five more than three times the number commercial orbital launches. Determine the number of commercial and noncommercial orbital launches.
Select the correct choice below and fill in any answer boxes in your choice.
A. The number of commercial orbital launches was $\square$.
The number of noncommercial orbital launches was $\square$.
(Type whole numbers.)
B. There are infinitely many solutions.
C. There is no solution.
Answer
So, the number of commercial orbital launches was \(\boxed{16}\) and the number of noncommercial orbital launches was \(\boxed{53}\).
Step 1 ：Let's denote the number of commercial launches as C and the number of noncommercial launches as N.
Step 2 ：From the problem, we know that the total number of launches is 69. So we can write the first equation as \(C + N = 69\).
Step 3 ：We also know that the number of noncommercial launches was five more than three times the number of commercial launches. This gives us the second equation \(N = 3C + 5\).
Step 4 ：Now we can solve this system of equations to find the values of C and N.
Step 5 ：The solution to the system of equations is \(C = 16\) and \(N = 53\).
Step 6 ：So, the number of commercial orbital launches was \(\boxed{16}\) and the number of noncommercial orbital launches was \(\boxed{53}\).
