SpaceX launches 54 Starlink satellites

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October 20, 2022 9:37 am Robert Zimmerman

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.

5 comments

geoffc
October 20, 2022 at 11:11 am
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.
The Last Optimist
October 20, 2022 at 11:27 am
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.
Robert Zimmerman
October 20, 2022 at 11:35 am
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.
geoffc
October 20, 2022 at 2:18 pm
@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.
Edward
October 21, 2022 at 8:55 pm
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.

SpaceX launches 54 Starlink satellites

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