SpaceX successfully launches 52 Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: Using its Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX today successfully put another 52 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, completing its fourth flight. The two fairing halves each completed their fourth and fifth flights, respectively.
Note: The Biden administration yesterday gave SpaceX the okay to activate Starlink in Iran, in order to provide that country’s citizens an option for obtaining information blocked by its government.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
43 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
6 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 60 to 38 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 60 to 58.
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.
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Capitalism in space: Using its Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX today successfully put another 52 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, completing its fourth flight. The two fairing halves each completed their fourth and fifth flights, respectively.
Note: The Biden administration yesterday gave SpaceX the okay to activate Starlink in Iran, in order to provide that country’s citizens an option for obtaining information blocked by its government.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
43 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
6 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 60 to 38 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 60 to 58.
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
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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.
I wonder, could SpaceX retire the Falcon 9 in favor of Starship before anyone else even puts a reusable orbital booster into service?
If somebody forced me to bet, I’d have to bet “yes”. The only reason I would hedge is because the F9 may well continue in use long after Starship is in production, since it is comparatively cheap and easy to use, perhaps especially in a quick-reaction role.
Ray Van Dune, if Starship works as planned, the Falcon 9 will be retired because it simply won’t be able to compete in cost with a fully reusable rocket. Consumables for a Starship launch are probably in the low-millions at most while consumables for every Falcon launch are still somewhere north of $10 million mainly because the second stage is not reusable. That is indeed cheap compared to other systems, but I’m pretty sure SpaceX doesn’t want themselves or their customers to spend this money if they don’t have to.
NASA and DOD will likely want Falcon launches longer than SpaceX would prefer, but virtually everything else will switch to Starship as soon as practical. You can be sure that SpaceX will be lobbying customers very hard once Starship is a proven entity.
mpthompson, your points are completely valid, but my real issue is that the rest of the industry seems to be so woefully behind, that it seems they will be putting SpaceX is the position of having to invest in maintaining legacy versions of its own products.
Uh oh
https://www.universetoday.com/157689/should-low-earth-orbit-be-a-protected-environmental-ecosystem/
Predictions on the cost of Starship launch are just that, predictions. But F9 could continue to be useful for missions that do not go to the same orbit Starship is servicing. It may not be cost effective to send the entire starship to polar orbit for a hypothetical 15 ton payload. I mean they could wait until there are 10 or 15 customer payloads, but that means waiting until they are all flight ready, and can be aggregated.
This most recent Starlink launch also set a record which I have seen remarked upon nowhere – the first 6-day pad turnaround in SpaceX history. Slightly less than 6 days, in fact. And SpaceX is getting ready to do a second 6-day turnaround of SLC-40 back-to-back. The next launch there is now scheduled for Sept. 30.
SpaceX seems well on the way to meeting or exceeding its announced 60-launch goal for all of 2022. There is even a decent probability that SpaceX, by itself, will meet or exceed the all-U.S. “silver medal” record for annual launches of 64 set in 1964.
SpaceX has already announced that its 2023 goal is 100 launches – 30 more than the 70 the entire U.S. managed to do during its previous busiest year in space, 1966. If SpaceX manages to keep putting together 6-day turnarounds for SLC-40, that pad, alone, could account for nearly as many launches in 2023 as SpaceX is looking to accomplish from all of its pads this year. With a rising launch cadence at its Vandy pad, a robust slate of Dragon and FH launches from LC-39A next year and the potential for multiple orbital Starship launches from Starbase, that 100-launch goal may actually prove conservative.
Ray Van Dune asked: “I wonder, could SpaceX retire the Falcon 9 in favor of Starship before anyone else even puts a reusable orbital booster into service?”
Probably not. Dragon needs Falcon 9, and SpaceX is contracted to use Dragon to go to ISS into 2030. Meanwhile, New Glenn and Neutron are likely to become operational long before then.
I am disappointed at the low number of reusable rockets currently in development. The reusable ones are likely to be lower price and certainly will be able to have much higher launch cadences than the expendable rockets. The companies that reuse their rockets will be the market leaders. The others will have to catch up or leave the launch market.