The beat goes on: SpaceX launches twice today
UPDATE: This post is changed because I missed an earlier launch today from SpaceX, when it launched 53 payloads, including many smallsats using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. It then followed with a successful launch of another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
On the Vandenberg launch, the first stage successfully completed its fifth flight, landing back at its landing zone at Vandenberg. In the Cape Canaveral launch, the first stage completed its thirteenth flight. landing on a droneship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
22 SpaceX
10 China
3 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the entire world combined 25 to 19 in successful launches, while SpaceX now leads the rest of the world, excluding American companies 22 to 19.
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
UPDATE: This post is changed because I missed an earlier launch today from SpaceX, when it launched 53 payloads, including many smallsats using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. It then followed with a successful launch of another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
On the Vandenberg launch, the first stage successfully completed its fifth flight, landing back at its landing zone at Vandenberg. In the Cape Canaveral launch, the first stage completed its thirteenth flight. landing on a droneship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
22 SpaceX
10 China
3 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the entire world combined 25 to 19 in successful launches, while SpaceX now leads the rest of the world, excluding American companies 22 to 19.
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
About two hours before it launched those Starlinks from Canaveral, SpaceX also launched its 10th Transporter rideshare mission from Vandenberg. So the SpaceX launch total for 2024 now stands at 22, not 21.
Dick Eagleson: Gosh, I missed that Vandenberg launch entirely. I will post. Thanks.
I wonder if Space X is publishing the engine numbers?
How many flights between overhauls, How many flights on each engine and so on.
At this point that might be the largest cost for Space X.
Mr. Zimmerman: As SpaceX continues to ramp up its Falcon launch cadence, keeping up will only get harder. And when Starship hits its stride it’s really going to be “Katie, bar the door” when it comes to keeping up. That should be about the same time a number of other reusable American launch vehicles start adding materially to the totals. I suspect that, within two or three years, you will be forced to cease making separate posts for each launch and just do a single daily update with a list of the day’s launches and the same updated totals you now publish. As Moon and Mars expeditions ramp up it may become impractical to even allow each launch a separate line in the daily summary and you’ll have to go to a system of just providing subtotal line items for certain types of launches – Starship tankers and Starlink deployments, for example.
pzatchok,
I don’t think Merlins get swapped out all that often. SpaceX recently announced that, while its most-flown 1st stages have racked up 19 launches, there was one particular Merlin that has flown 22 times. Any Merlins that are swapped out probably just go through a repair process and enter the pool of spares again. They might even be installed on “new” Falcon 9 booster stages and sent through the usual certification tests at McGregor.
It is great that the Merlin’s are making multiple launches without more than a “filter” change. But it would be nice to know how often a full take down and rebuild of an engine does cost and how often it happens.
It would also be nice to know what they do to refly one of the capsules.
Oil change, new air filter, rotate the tires. Fill er up.
That is pretty much what its turning into.
If this keeps up, they are gonna need another recovery barge.
pzatchok,
I’d like to know all of those things as well. Perhaps one of Eric Berger’s future books will take a deep dive into the evolving details of F9 operations.
Richard M,
With SLC-6 at Vandy getting into SpaceX service next year I’d say the company needs at least one more drone ship on each coast.