SpaceX launches another 22 Starlink satellites
In what is turning into routine clockwork, SpaceX tonight completed its fourth launch in only the first ten days of August, placing 22 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing safely on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairings completed their tenth and eleventh flights respectively. At the time of posting the satellites themselves had not yet been deployed.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
55 SpaceX
33 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 63 to 33, and the entire world combined 63 to 55. SpaceX by itself is now tied with the entire world (excluding American companies) 55 to 55.
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In what is turning into routine clockwork, SpaceX tonight completed its fourth launch in only the first ten days of August, placing 22 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing safely on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairings completed their tenth and eleventh flights respectively. At the time of posting the satellites themselves had not yet been deployed.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
55 SpaceX
33 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 63 to 33, and the entire world combined 63 to 55. SpaceX by itself is now tied with the entire world (excluding American companies) 55 to 55.
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.
Amazing that it took until the eighth month of the year for SpaceX to even be tied by the rest of the world. And even get ahead for a few hours yesterday. Reading occasional complaints about SpaceX monopoly should read more about the competition not doing their job. The legacy companies and the ones they acquired had over 4 decades experience before SpaceX was founded, and a half century experience before Falcon9 flight one.
John Hare: Actually, SpaceX has been ahead of the rest of the world for most of the time for the last several months. In fact, the tie on this date is the exception, not the rule. For most of the last two months SpaceX has led.
It shows you just how rare Elon is.
Investors run from aerospace due to up-front costs…and most independently rich don’t care for aerospace…or have Elon’s engineering chops.
Outside of him, other start-ups just get told seven different kinds of “no.”
Just ask Gary Hudson.
For years, I have heard folks rail against airlines.
Then all I heard was the market will solve this, etc.
Read the book FREE FLIGHT about what happened to Vern Rayburn and the VLJ/air taxi model.
The large drones look to renew this idea.
We will see.
Computer start-ups just need code monkeys…pizzas…and Funko pops.
I imagine an aviation start up who used a venture capitalist’s money to get tooling, an engineer…and hanger space having this conversation with the VC on his visit:
“Where’s my airplane?”
What do you mean ‘where’s my airplane?’
“What went with all that money?”
Here it is–
“I don’t see anything but jigs and empty hanger space! I’m pulling the plug.”
Lots of little Jack Welsh’s for every big one.