SpaceX tonight successfully launches another 22 Starlink satellites
SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 22 Starlink satellites, using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairing halves completed their 8th and 10th flights respectively. As of posting the satellites have not yet been deployed.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
53 SpaceX
31 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 61 to 31, and the entire world combined 61 to 51, while SpaceX by itself leads the world (excluding American companies) 53 to 51.
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.
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SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 22 Starlink satellites, using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairing halves completed their 8th and 10th flights respectively. As of posting the satellites have not yet been deployed.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
53 SpaceX
31 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 61 to 31, and the entire world combined 61 to 51, while SpaceX by itself leads the world (excluding American companies) 53 to 51.
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.
Looks like they are testing the cadence of SLC-40 now that LC-39A is basically launching 1-2 times a month at most due to F-H -> Dragon -> F-H switch time delays. Now they seem limitd by ASDS availability and then how fast they can recycle the pad.
Answer looks to be pretty quick!!!
If they can get Vandenberg to the cadence SLC-40 is showing (alas only one ASDS out there) then that 100 launch target looks suddenly more doable..
I’d put the achievable launch cadence closer to 90 for this year and probably next. It has taken a lot of work to get SLC-40 to its current 5-day turnaround time, and that roughly matches the turnaround time for recovery boosters with the two ASDS and more limited flight rate from 39A. Improving SLC-40 turn-around has been a long, incremental process. Increasing use of return-to-launch-site can relieve some time constraints on ASDS, and it looks like they’ll try to do that with launches to ISS now. Vandenberg does not appear to be close to that turn-around rate, and I’m guessing that pad turn-around is the constraint, rather than the single ASDS.
The other constraint on launch rate is minimizing delays, either from launch aborts or from weather. We’re approaching peak hurricane season so there will be more weather delays between now and mid-November.
Getting to 90 this year means a launch cadence of about 8 launches per month for the rest of the year. That seems achievable only if there are no delays of any type.
Diane Wilson wrote: “Getting to 90 this year means a launch cadence of about 8 launches per month for the rest of the year. That seems achievable only if there are no delays of any type.”
Reaching 100 flights this year would mean 10 launches per month for the rest of the year, and that may be tricky. Since they probably cannot do that rate this month, then December would have to make up for the difference, 11 or 12 or more launches. Can they really ramp up that much in the next five months? I’m with Diane and doubt it, too.
For 100 flights next year, they would need to average 8-1/3 flights per month, including successful Starship flights. I look forward to seeing what SpaceX can do next year.
Of course, the prize is not in reaching cadence milestones but in making sure the business operates smoothly. This one company is achieving what the commercial satellite industry had begged for in the 1990s: inexpensive access to space. With SpaceX, access is routinely available and costs less than $2,000 per pound. ($67 million to put up to 38,000 pounds into orbit.)
I’m also hoping that some other launch companies get busy. If New Glenn can make orbit next year, I would be happy to see it enter the competition. Rocket lab is also picking up the pace, and if their soaking wet rockets can fly again, I would be happy — yet at the same time amazed. (Perhaps they may name that mission “Destry Flies Again,” pleasing old movie buffs.)
I was able to see some of the second stage flight from the west side of Phoenix – mostly an arcing diffuse cloud of moderate brightness. Watching the flight video at the same time, the onboard camera showed the sun appear at the limb of the earth, before receding again as the rocket travelled further southeast. This launch was an hour after Vandenberg’s sunset, so I’ll just have to wait for one set closer to it for a really nice show.
Damn, disregard my previous post – I’d though this was about the Vandenberg launch.
Diane Wilson wrote: “Getting to 90 this year means a launch cadence of about 8 launches per month for the rest of the year. That seems achievable only if there are no delays of any type.”
I had agreed with Diane, until I counted the number of SpaceX launches since July 7th. Nine. Including a Falcon Heavy. SpaceX already seems to have the ability to launch at the cadence of 9 per month, but it needs 10 per month for the rest of the year in order to achieve 100 flights to orbit this year.
I’m becoming more impressed with the company as time goes on. All that they need for 100 flights next year is to average 8-1/3 flights a month. Here are Robert’s posts for the time period of the nine launches:
– July 7: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-launches-another-48-starlink-satellites/
– July 9: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-launches-22-starlink-satellites-using-a-first-stage-for-16th-time/
– July 15: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-launches-using-its-second-falcon-9-first-stage-on-its-sixteenth-flight/
– July 19: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-launches-15-more-starlink-satellites-into-orbit/
– July 23: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-launches-another-22-starlink-satellites/
– July 27: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacexs-falcon-9-launches-another-22-starlink-satellites/
– July 28: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacexs-falcon-heavy-successfully-launches-the-heaviest-geosynchronous-communications-satellite-ever/
– Aug 6: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-tonight-successfully-launches-another-22-starlink-satellites/
– Aug 7: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/spacex-successfully-launches-another-15-starlink-satellites/
By the way, with the delay in Starship becoming operational, SpaceX has a huge incentive to launch a large number of Starlink satellites on Falcon rockets in a relatively short period of time, which requires a very rapid cadence. Biden’s administration may be harming Starship in the short run, but SpaceX is learning a lot about rapid turnaround.