SpaceX and China complete launches
Both SpaceX and China completed launches in the past 12 hours. First, SpaceX last night launched a package of National Reconnaissance Office reconnaissance satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its eighth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings completed their seventh and thirteenth flights respectively.
Then, early today China launched a new communications satellite, its new Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport. Video of the liftoff can be seen here.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
69 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 80 to 43, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 69 to 54.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Both SpaceX and China completed launches in the past 12 hours. First, SpaceX last night launched a package of National Reconnaissance Office reconnaissance satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its eighth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings completed their seventh and thirteenth flights respectively.
Then, early today China launched a new communications satellite, its new Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport. Video of the liftoff can be seen here.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
69 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 80 to 43, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 69 to 54.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX has already surpassed its 2022 launch total (61), and it is . . . not even July yet.
The juggernaut has truly arrived.
Since this is SpaceX’s last launch in June, the first half of the year has been at a rate that would give 138 launches by the end of the year, 134 of which would be falcons. This is close to the planned number of launches, and because SpaceX has been successful at still increasing its launch cadence, I think it is reasonable to expect them to succeed in their goal of 144 Falcons, but whether they can perform four more Starship tests by year’s end is questionable, but perhaps not impossible.
They need to launch falcons at a rate of three per week for the rest of the year, and Starship tests at a rate of one every 6½ weeks.
Jan……10
Feb…….9
Mar…..13 (1 was IFT-3 of Starship/Super Heavy)
Apr…..12
May….13
June…12 (1 was IFT-4 of Starship/Super Heavy, 1 was Falcon Heavy)
Terry: Thank you for tracking the monthly pace. Are you getting the counts here by searching, as I suggested?
Does it count as a launch if wasn’t supposed to be? Just wow. https://spacenews.com/chinese-rocket-static-fire-test-results-in-unintended-launch-and-huge-explosion/
David,
Thank you for that link and the other videos. I saw a video at another site, not as good as the one you posted. That was China’s test of the reusable Tian’ong-3 rocket. Here it
is.
David Eastman: Wow!
I am getting the monthly SpaceX launches by using https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#2024
Of course I then need to manually add in any Starship/Super Heavy flights.
I note that SpaceX has maintained a launch rate of at least 12 per month for four straight months.
A happy tune
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9A8DU_LBP3s&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.nasaspaceflight.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt