SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites
More bunny action. SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Increasingly, SpaceX is treating its rockets and launchpads like the airlines treat their airplanes: They only have value if they are flying, and SpaceX is trying to keep both rockets and launchpads flying at all times.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
55 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 62 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 55 to 43.
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
More bunny action. SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Increasingly, SpaceX is treating its rockets and launchpads like the airlines treat their airplanes: They only have value if they are flying, and SpaceX is trying to keep both rockets and launchpads flying at all times.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
55 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 62 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 55 to 43.
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
Would it be possible to see the per month totals for SpaceX so we can get a sense of launch cadence? This list is reminding me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes.
Terry: All you really have to do is divide the number of launches by the month to get a rough figure. At this moment this year SpaceX is exceeding 10 launches per month.
@Terry you can try NextSpaceFlight.com
SpaceX link:
https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/agency/upcoming/1/
11 flights in May so far, 3 more scheduled. On track to 140+ at this pace.
End of 5 months, and 54 flights (3 more to go, so assume 57 in 5 months is over 11/month)
Geoffc, thanks for that link.
Bob, doing that math is easy but it shows a back looking average. I’m interested in seeing how the SpaceX current and previous month launch totals are doing compared to the “12 per month” target. Seeing the “real time” cadence will help us better estimate the year-end totals for SpaceX.
I have been using the “List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches” on Wikipedia, but of course that does not include any Starship launches.
Terry: One thing you can do is use BtB. Do a search of the words “launch” “race” “leaders”. That should get you every one of my launch posts. You can then quickly scan down them and get an idea of the monthly numbers.