SpaceX comes very close to meeting goal of 100 orbital launches in a 12 months

SpaceX had a complete of 98 successful missions in 2023, some distance greater than its nearest competition. It will start out 2024 with a January 2 release of a Falcon nine with a payload of 21 Starlink satellites, a number of a good way to have the first Direct to Call capabilities.

Every four days over the last one year SpaceX despatched a rocket into orbit, for a total of 98 a hit missions, topping its previous record of 61 orbital launches in 2022 and coming inside putting distance of founder Elon Musk's goal of 100 launches for 2023.

It ended the year with an formidable two launches remaining Thursday, sending two rockets into orbit from Florida. The first turned into a Falcon Heavy, carrying the USA navy's X-37B space aircraft – which does not have a team and operates autonomously – from a launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center to unparalleled altitudes in which it's going to behavior modern research. The 2nd became the Falcon 9, which blasted off a few miles to the south wearing 23 Starlink Internet satellites.

In all, SpaceX closed the year with ninety eight flights that blanketed ninety one Falcon 9s, 5 Falcon Heavy rockets and two test launches of the Super Heavy-Starship rocket. The enterprise would possibly nicely have met Musk's aim of 100 launches had it now not been for terrible weather and some technical issues with the closing Falcon Heavy launch.

Falcon Heavy launches USSF-fifty two to orbit from Florida p.C.Twitter.Com/DC269EmaLh

– SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 29, 2023

Musk and his team is probably upset, but no longer when positioned into the bigger context of what its competitors accomplished in 2023. Rocket Lab USA launched its forty second Electron rocket in mid-December, marking its tenth orbit for the yr and making the Electron the second one most often released U.S. Rocket annually. It deployed a satellite tv for pc for Japan-based Earth imaging agency the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space.

Another competitor, United Launch Alliance had three missions this yr with a total of 158 under its belt, with its modern in October while the Atlas V rocket wearing the Protoflight assignment for Amazon's Project Kuiper lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Protoflight launch become the primary assignment in a broader commercial partnership among ULA and Amazon to release the majority of the Project Kuiper constellation.

SpaceX will waste no time in the new 12 months for extra flights. It is making plans a January 2 launch of a Falcon 9 with a payload of 21 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This release will encompass the first six Starlink satellites with Direct to Call abilties so that it will permit cell community operators round the arena to provide global access to Internet and make contact with offerings.