SpaceX launches 54 Starlink satellites
SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 54 Starlink satellites.
The first stage completed its 10th flight, landing on its drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
48 SpaceX
45 China
15 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 68 to 45, and is tied with the entire world combined 68 each. Note that SpaceX’s 48 launches so far this year matches the entire total for the U.S. last year.
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.
SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 54 Starlink satellites.
The first stage completed its 10th flight, landing on its drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
48 SpaceX
45 China
15 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 68 to 45, and is tied with the entire world combined 68 each. Note that SpaceX’s 48 launches so far this year matches the entire total for the U.S. last year.
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.
Per Elon, this is also the record of the most flights in one year by a booster type. (Soyuz-U did 47 in 1979).
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1583133885696987136
And we still have 10 or so launches to go in all likelyhood.
Is it possible to compare the payload weight lofted to space along with the launch count? I was thinking that SpaceX launch cadence may significantly decrease with Starship while their volume of mission loads increases. Raw launch count may not be the best comparison.
The Last Optimist: I’ve responded to this suggestion numerous times in the past. It would be a lot of work to add mass to this list. Though the information is certainly informative, it really doesn’t have anything to do with my goal in keeping this launch list.
Mass-to-orbit indicates the potential for future in-space development. My goal however is to track the growth of the launch industry, worldwide. While launching a larger mass-to-orbit indicates a greater capability by any company or nation, the number of companies and launches provides a better metric on who is making this happen, as well as the growing competition to do it.
In the end, the competition will guarantee a larger mass-to-orbit anyway.
@TheLastOptimist I was using spacexstats.xyz to track mass to orbit for SpaceX at least. But there data source seems to have not been updating for the last 5 launches (and missed on about 5 launches before that.) They have it at 43 launches and not updated since then.
Most specifically try this link:
https://www.spacexstats.xyz/#payloads-upmass-per-year
At least you can compare SpaceX to SpaceX year over year.
The Last Optimist,
You asked: “Is it possible to compare the payload weight lofted to space along with the launch count?”
I had wondered this myself. I was one of those who gave this suggestion in the past, but I have since realized that what I really wanted to know was how much we use space, how much use we get out of space. A way to make this measurement is to use the space economy as a proxy.
Because satellites sometimes reenter the atmosphere, the mass of the payloads that have been put into space is not the mass currently in space. In addition, there are upper stages that have been placed in orbit and some continue to orbit the Earth. Should the mass of these upper stages be included? For your question, the answer is: no. You specified payload mass.
However, some people may wonder how much mass in now in space that could conceivably be dismantled and used in the future for other space projects. For that, I would include the expended upper stages.