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.
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 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
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.
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 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
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.