SpaceX successfully launches 49 Starlink satellites and a D-Orbit space tug
SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites as well as a D-Orbit space tug carrying one of its own customer’s satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The D-Orbit tug with its four payloads has also successfully deployed.
The 2023 launch race:
7 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
American private enterprise leads China 8 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 8 to 6.
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SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites as well as a D-Orbit space tug carrying one of its own customer’s satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The D-Orbit tug with its four payloads has also successfully deployed.
The 2023 launch race:
7 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
American private enterprise leads China 8 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 8 to 6.
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.
As the month closes, it is interesting to see how much of a dent, the Falcon Heavy took on SpaceX’s launch cadence. Those 7 flights, were 2 from Vandenberg, 1 from LC-39A, and 4 from SLC-40.
The time it took to convert from 1 booster -> 3 booster -> Back to 1 booster config for the launch table, seems like it wasted most of the month. Since SLC-40 launched 4 times in the same period.
If they want to hit 100 launches, seems like they need to skip the Falcon Heavy launches…
Robert – Are you sure about the 7 launches for Space X? I counted 8 in Jan based on the Space X web site.
Ben: I post an update after every launch, and have reviewed the numbers. I haven’t missed anything.
What I suspect is that SpaceX might be counting the Falcon Heavy launch twice, assuming their count is counting the number of boosters that have returned.
Robert:
SpaceX reports:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/
8) JANUARY 31, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
7) JANUARY 26, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
6) JANUARY 19, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
5) JANUARY 18, 2023: GPS III SPACE VEHICLE 06 MISSION
4) JANUARY 15, 2023: USSF-67 MISSION (Flacon Heavy)
3) JANUARY 11, 2023: CRS-26 RETURNS TO EARTH
2) JANUARY 9, 2023: ONEWEB LAUNCH 16 MISSION
1) JANUARY 3, 2023: TRANSPORTER-6 MISSION
I believe that Ben confused the January 11 return of CRS-26 as a launch.
On another note: 14 launches worldwide gives a trend for 168 launches in 2023, 84 as SpaceX and 60 as Chinese. I expect an increase in launch cadence through the course of the year.
All this commercial activity makes this decade an exciting time to watch space activities. Almost as exciting as the 1960s, only the commercial aspect benefits all mankind, not just the governments active in the space race. This is the kind of space activity that we had hoped for half a century ago.
Yup, my mistake. Edward is right, I saw the CRS 20 return listed with their launches.