SpaceX launches another 51 Starlink satellites and orbital tug
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to place 51 more Starlink satellites into orbit, as well as a Sherpa orbital tug built by the commercial company Spaceflight.
The first stage completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The tug was successfully deployed and will carry a Boeing test satellite for a proposed 147 satellite constellation to its planned orbit.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
40 SpaceX
34 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 55 to 34 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 55 to 52. SpaceX’s 40 launches matches the U.S.’s entire total in 2020, and was only exceeded by the U.S. six times since the dawn of the space age in 1957.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to place 51 more Starlink satellites into orbit, as well as a Sherpa orbital tug built by the commercial company Spaceflight.
The first stage completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The tug was successfully deployed and will carry a Boeing test satellite for a proposed 147 satellite constellation to its planned orbit.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
40 SpaceX
34 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 55 to 34 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 55 to 52. SpaceX’s 40 launches matches the U.S.’s entire total in 2020, and was only exceeded by the U.S. six times since the dawn of the space age in 1957.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
What was the US highest mark? And the worlds highest mark? US of course we are likely to beat this year. But how about the world high water launch mark?
geoffc-
can’t vouch for the accuracy of this graph, but take a look…
“Total Launches by Country 1957-2019”
https://aerospace.csis.org/data/space-environment-total-launches-by-country/
geoffc: Gee, I publish such graphs each year at year’s end, and in fact, the high mark for the globe was last year. see:
2021: The year that private enterprise took over rocketry
Wayne: You should know this.
Mr Z.
The search function here, which I am guessing is a feature of the hosting software, is not the best.
I was looking for that post, and could not find it.
Do you know if it searches for key words, or “natural language”? Are there tags on the back end that we do not see?
Side note, just for fun: My screenname is sippin_bourbon, because the first time I posted here, I had a glass of bourbon that I was enjoying. But I actually enjoy bourbon, scotch, even rum, occasional martinis, red wine, and the rare beer (I am super picky about beer. I agree with Monty Python’s description of American Beer, being a bit like “making love in a canoe”). But I am rarely actually drinking anything.
But today (LaborDay) I have a trappist quadruple ale that a good friend makes at his microbrewery.
I think changing my screen name to quadruple ale, or trappist monk beer might be a bit excessive.
sippin_bourbon: The search feature on BtB is I agree not the best. It is also apparently slowed by the spam software I use to filter comments.
I have an advantage in using the feature in that I always know the best key words, based on my own memory of what I wrote. For example, I known the words “global” and “launch” will lead me to it and my other year-end summaries because I know those words are there.
There is also a search box for accessing BtB’s archive in the right column (on a desktop). Since these posts are always at around January 1, you could use that to find them.
That is the trick with key word searches (which I prefer), is knowing which keywords to use.
I do not need to use the search option often here.
Your site lacks a few of the advantages of others that use f-book, discus or some other commenting system.
However, I much prefer your format and rules. Don’t feel the need to change it.
sippin_bourbon: Your comment inspired me to do some research into improving the search function. Stay tuned.
SpaceX is just an absolute juggernaut now. They’re on pace for 59 launches for 2022.
Richard M: The company has said it is targeting 60 launches for the year, so it is right on a pace to achieve that.
The Beatles
“It’s All Too Much” (Jan 1969)
https://youtu.be/2zc3idF_IZ0
6:25
“Sail me on a silver sun
Where I know that I’m free
Show me that I’m everywhere
And get me home for tea….”
Richard M wrote: “They’re on pace for 59 launches for 2022.”
True, if you only use the average launch cadence so far this year. The cadence is faster now than it was in the first quarter, and SpaceX intends to launch a couple of Falcon Heavies and at least one orbital Starship, so they should be able to do 60 with some margin.
Robert, that link has a hilarious (in hindsight) line, I just have to repost the quote about the Russian space program.
“Though it lost most of its commercial satellite business to SpaceX, it still has one major satellite customer, OneWeb. It also is making money launching tourists to ISS, where it is successfully competing with the new American space tourism industry. For Russia the international cooperation is fueling a revival in space. We would make a mistake if we underestimate its potential in the coming decade.”
Hahaha. What a great point you made at the time, and how time changes everything.
I was curious, actually for the histrorical highs, since you often comment on the launch reports, that say the US is approaching its highest launch rate since 1962 or the like…
How likely are we to hit a overall historical (not just 2000’s) high this year?
PS: I agree on the search. I too have a large corpus of articles (totally different topic space), and I can find the one I want very fast, by remembering keywords. So I commiserate.
Mr. Z.,
I’d like to know as well, if the search function uses natural language and/or keywords/tags?
(I mainly use search here to check on evening pause videos.)
sippin_bourbon:
–just for fun (way tangential)—-
“The Whiskey Drinking Lawyer”
Myroom Records
->Theme song for Nick Rekieta’s podcast
https://youtu.be/YfitP8sIJOs
3:48
Rev. I.B. Ware with Wife and Son
“You Better Quit Drinking Shine” (1928)
https://youtu.be/RH75zZpNJIA
3:27
I re-read Roberts’ response to me, and see he said that 2021 was the launch high water mark for humanity. Neat.