SpaceX launches another 22 Starlink satellites
SpaceX today successfully launched another 22 second generation Starlink satellites, using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairings completed their seventh and eighth flights respectively.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
49 SpaceX
29 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 56 to 29, and the entire world combined 56 to 48, with SpaceX by itself leading with the entire world combined (excluding other American companies) 49 to 48.
SpaceX’s 49 successful launches so far this year carries some additional historical significance. This number exceeds the launch count of the entire United States per year from 1968 to 2021, and SpaceX has done it in only a little more than half the year. Its reported goal of completing 100 launches this year remains very much within reach.
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SpaceX today successfully launched another 22 second generation Starlink satellites, using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairings completed their seventh and eighth flights respectively.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
49 SpaceX
29 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 56 to 29, and the entire world combined 56 to 48, with SpaceX by itself leading with the entire world combined (excluding other American companies) 49 to 48.
SpaceX’s 49 successful launches so far this year carries some additional historical significance. This number exceeds the launch count of the entire United States per year from 1968 to 2021, and SpaceX has done it in only a little more than half the year. Its reported goal of completing 100 launches this year remains very much within reach.
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.
I think “100 launches” was another off-the-cuff Elon remark. Realistically, 90 is probably aspirational, and the limits are logistical. They can turn around SLC-40 in 5 days. 39A gets the Falcon Heavy and crew launches, and those take more time. The two drone ships stay busy with the current launch cadence, so there’s not much slack there. Vandenberg only has one pad and one drone ship, and their best pad turnaround has been about 10 days or so. Even then, maximum number of launches is always subject to weather conditions and aborts.
I suspect that what we’ve seen this year, probably 51 or maybe 52 through July, is about as fast as SpaceX can go, without another pad and another drone ship, and there are no such projects ongoing. They might get close to 100 if Vandenberg can get to 5 day turnaround, but that won’t happen this year. Starship probably won’t get a significant launch cadence for a couple of years yet.
I’d like to see a whole slew of Falcon pads and more cores at the ready.
Diane,
SpaceX is quickly fixing/converting SLC-6 down in Vandenberg. At the pace my friend told me SpaceX is working, I would not be surprised to see a launch this year from that pad.
Jay, thanks for the info about SLC-6 at Vandenberg. That will help improve turnaround time on the west coast. That leaves open the other logistical questions for Vandenberg, though, as in how quickly then can refurbish a Falcon 9, and how many they have in inventory. They can do quick turnaround in Florida partly because they have rockets waiting for launch scheduling. I have no idea how many rockets they have at Vandenberg, or how long it takes to prep them for reflight.
I think “100 launches” was another off-the-cuff Elon remark. Realistically, 90 is probably aspirational, and the limits are logistical.
As of today, they’re on pace for 87 launches for 2023.
At times this year, the cadence has projected out into the low 90’s. Not impossible they could do that, but it does depend on a number of factors, not all of which are under the control of SpaceX.
Diane,
I do not know which rockets are where or how many. I know there are guys on the NASA Space Flight Forum who follow the rocket’s serial numbers and how many flights flown statistics. I am surprised they have not made “baseball cards” of the boosters with stats!
At first I always thought the Falcon-9 first stages were barged down to SpaceX’s Hawthorn HQ for refurbishment and trucked back up to Vandy. My friend corrected me that there is a dock at the base and the rockets are brought back through there back up to SpaceX’s hanger at SLC-4. SLC-4 is north about 5km of SLC-6.
Seeing the SpaceX hangers at KSC, this is a building that can be thrown up at SLC-6 very quickly. They can definitely launch a Falcon-9 Heavy from SLC-6.
Given the geography of Vandenberg, it may be that there is not a great deal extra demand for launches from there.
The only trajectories available from there are westerly, which are retrograde and seldom used, polar, or slightly east of south. The latter requires a “dogleg” around Baja California and thus involves a performance hit.
Not saying there isn’t any more demand, but I don’t see how there could be a ton more, justifying major new pad development.
Landing from orbit is another matter. OTVs use Vandy’s runway and shuttles used the Cape’s. Whether Starship will use either is unknown, as this is a belly-flop landing, not a glide requiring a runway.