SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites
SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage successfully completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
90 SpaceX
56 China
16 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches, 102 to 56, and the entire world combined 102 to 90. SpaceX by itself is once again tied with the rest of the world (excluding other American companies) 90 to 90. The fast pace in launches continues, however, with five launches scheduled in the next five days.
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SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage successfully completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
90 SpaceX
56 China
16 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches, 102 to 56, and the entire world combined 102 to 90. SpaceX by itself is once again tied with the rest of the world (excluding other American companies) 90 to 90. The fast pace in launches continues, however, with five launches scheduled in the next five days.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Minor edit in second paragraph: “ninth”
Andi: This is becoming a regular thing. Fixed. Thank you.
They really are going full throttle to reach 100 for the year,
Using the source you linked, I see only 2 scheduled F9 launches and one Falcon Heavy. There are 7 more SpaceX launches marked DEC 2023, but with no specific date. Looks like a pretty close run thing, as they say.
Even if they fall shy of 100, SpaceX has established itself in a class by themselves in rocketry, much like Tesla has in the auto industry! I laugh as Ford, GM, VW, et al, moan that there is no demand for EVs! No, there is no demand for THEIR junk! Tesla can sell as many as they can make, and I’ll bet even Slow Joe Biden knows that!
Ray,
Right now, the highest-probability full year 2023 Falcon launch total looks to me to be 98, though 100 is still barely possible. The next three or so weeks will prove instructive. In any case, as Jay’s story from a couple days ago makes clear, SpaceX’s Falcon launch cadence should continue to accelerate smartly for at least the next two years.
Ditto also anent Tesla. Pretty much the entirety of legacy automakerdom will be either already dead or in corporate hospice care by the end of the current decade. So will the UAW.
“Pretty much the entirety of legacy automakerdom will be either already dead or in corporate hospice care by the end of the current decade. So will the UAW.”
True, but unfortunately, the politicians may decide to throw good money after bad, and try to bail them out – especially the UAW! And with the progress in AI, we may not even be fair to tell them to learn to code!!
All of us space nerds need to scream bloody murder to try to prevent DC from “rescuing” the auto industry – SpaceX is the perfect example of the right way. Unfortunately the Deep State regards Elon, correctly, as a threat!
The real thing the auto industry needs rescuing from is the liberal green save the earth policies being forced on them the very government who talks about saving them later.
Ray Van Dune wrote: “… SpaceX has established itself in a class by themselves in rocketry, much like Tesla has in the auto industry! I laugh as Ford, GM, VW, et al, moan that there is no demand for EVs! No, there is no demand for THEIR junk! Tesla can sell as many as they can make …”
The significant difference between Tesla EVs and the other EVs is that Tesla is making them as their product and the other companies are making theirs only to comply with legal requirements. Tesla is more desperate to sell theirs, but the other companies are still only trying to sell oxygen breathing automobiles. Government interfered with the market, and the result is that instead of everyone noting the success of EVs, they only see the utter failure of them, since the majority of companies are unable to sell theirs.
Government does similar interference in the space industry. Europe decided to continue telling Arianespace how to make their Ariane 6 Rocket, and it is only slowly finding customers.