SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites
SpaceX early this morning launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
70 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 81 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 70 to 55.
To get a sense of how incredible SpaceX’s launch pace this year has been, those 70 launches, completed in only days more than first half of the 2024, matches the American record for launches in a entire year, that was set in 1966 and remained the record until 2022.
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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.
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SpaceX early this morning launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
70 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 81 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 70 to 55.
To get a sense of how incredible SpaceX’s launch pace this year has been, those 70 launches, completed in only days more than first half of the 2024, matches the American record for launches in a entire year, that was set in 1966 and remained the record until 2022.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
Bob,
Out of curiosity, do you know what governs the NUMBER of Starlink satellites that are being launched? For instance, many of the prior launches were of 23 satellites while this one was of just 20.
Is it simply a matter of the number of satellites available in time for a given launch?
F,
Starlink missions that consist entirely of now-standard V2-mini birds typically launch 23 at a time from Canaveral and 22 at a time from Vandenberg. But there is a newer and modestly heavier V2-mini version that also supports direct-to-cell service. Probably due to current limits on production capacity, these latter birds have been launched 13 at a time along with 7 standard V2-minis to make a total load of 20 satellites.
Dick Eagleson,
Thank you!!
All those launches back in the 1960’s were mostly spy satellites.
Spy satellites using film reels. The film needed to be recovered and developed and new sats needed to be launched as fast as possible to keep tabs on the Soviet Union.
After digital cameras can into use the launch fever dropped off to nothing.
Thanks to Elon for reviving it.