China completes 2nd launch in 2020
China today successfully launched a earth resource satellite plus two smallsats using its Long March 2D rocket.
Right now in 2020 only SpaceX and China have completed launches, with China leading 2-1. SpaceX however plans on launching another 60 Starlink smallsats on January 20th, which will tie them again.
I expect both to be neck and neck for the rest of the year.
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China today successfully launched a earth resource satellite plus two smallsats using its Long March 2D rocket.
Right now in 2020 only SpaceX and China have completed launches, with China leading 2-1. SpaceX however plans on launching another 60 Starlink smallsats on January 20th, which will tie them again.
I expect both to be neck and neck for the rest of the year.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
You won’t count In flight Abort test as a launch? Or only as a successful failure? Or is that a failed success? Hmm… Rightspeak is hard.
geoffc: For this measure, I only count launches that reach orbit. I thus exclude all failures, and suborbital missions like the launch abort test and New Shepard and Virgin Galactic flights. The goal is to see who is getting objects permanently into space.
Bob, I completely agree with your logic as to what constitutes a successful launch. Buuuuttt….it’s still a pity the in-flight abort test doesn’t count as one, since that would make the time between that flight and the next Starlink launch (scheduled for January 20th) by far the closest back-to-back flights that SpaceX has performed.
Scott M: Don’t worry. They will have plenty of opportunities to set and beat that record, with two orbital launches, in the coming years.