Russia launches another 36 OneWeb satellites
Capitalism in space: Russia today launched another 36 OneWeb satellites from its Vostochny spaceport using its Soyuz-2 rocket.
This raises the number of OneWeb satellites in orbit to 254.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
20 SpaceX
18 China
11 Russia
3 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. remains ahead of China, 29 to 18, in the national rankings.
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Capitalism in space: Russia today launched another 36 OneWeb satellites from its Vostochny spaceport using its Soyuz-2 rocket.
This raises the number of OneWeb satellites in orbit to 254.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
20 SpaceX
18 China
11 Russia
3 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. remains ahead of China, 29 to 18, in the national rankings.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I have never been able to figure out how you do these counts.
America has 29
SpaceX has 20
Northrop Grumman has 3
Where are the other 6?
Thank you for explaining it to me.
Darwin Teague: The leader list is only the LEADERS. There are other American companies that have launches (Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, etc) but not enough to make the leader board.
At the end of the year I will publish a full graph, as I have done every year for the past four. See:
The state of the global rocket industry in the 21st century
Darwin: SpaceX 20, Northrop 3, ULA 2, Rocket Lab 2, and Virgin Orbit 2.
This comes up a lot.
I agree that Bob’s table is confusing since it mixes foreign countries and American companies. It would be clearer and more consistent to combine the American numbers into a single entry in the table and use the text to pull out SpaceX and the other American companies. The way he does it, it’s not clear at all unless you dig into the details that it is America, not China, that is leading the launch race.
But Bob wants to highlight SpaceX, not America, so he does what he does. His blog — his rules.
mkent: My goal is to highlight the success of all American companies, driven by profit, capitalism, and private ownership. If ULA was doing what SpaceX was doing I’d be thrilled, and it would get highlighted quite nicely. They aren’t. Neither is Blue Origin, yet. Or Rocket Lab, despite many promises.
I eagerly await the day that all begin showing up in the leader board, so that SpaceX doesn’t dominate. It isn’t up to me, or SpaceX however. It is up to them.
Robert: My comment isn’t about SpaceX vs. ULA vs. Northrop Grumman, etc. Comparing company vs. company is legitimate, as is showing how SpaceX is dominating the American launch market.
But the confusion with your chart is that it compares American companies with foreign countries. For most of last year, the chart made it look like China, not the United States, was the world launch leader. A casual glance at the chart right now would show the same thing.
I know enough about the launch industry that I can parse your chart and understand its meaning. But based on the frequency of questions very much like Darwin’s — it seems to happen about once every three or four times you post the chart — a lot of people do not. The chart seems to confuse, not clarify.
I’m suggesting that putting all of the American launches under a single line titled “America” with the American companies split out in the text below instead of the other way around would reduce the confusion. Or perhaps breaking out the American companies in an indented sub-list under the “America” line instead of in the text would be even better.
It would, perhaps, reduce the number of times you have to answer the same question.
Something like:
29 America
—– 20 SpaceX
—— 3 Northrop Grumman
—— 2 ULA
—— 2 Rocket Lab
—— 2 Virgin Orbit
20 China
11 Russia
1 India
1 Europe
…but with the hyphens replaced with the proper html code to indent the subgroup properly.
My chart above still shows SpaceX dominating the American launch market, but it also shows America dominating the world launch market. It also shows at a glance one other thing. Space launch is beginning to be the United States, China, and everyone else. That’s even more apparent when you consider that nearly half of Russia’s launches are OneWeb launches and a South Korean rideshare.
And THAT shows one other important point. SPACE is beginning to be the United States, China, and everyone else. Once the OneWeb launches are over, Russia will have a niche launching Progress and Soyuz capsules to the ISS, and Europe will have a space science niche. Nearly everything else will be either the United States or China.
And THAT drives debate to your overall free market vs. controlled market point. How that plays out throughout the 21st century will be a pretty good indicator of the future of humanity.