SpaceX took just a little time to replicate on its history-making 2022 within the yr’s dying moments.
Elon Musk‘s firm launched 61 orbital missions in 2022, practically doubling its earlier single-year document of 31, which was set in 2021. The brand new mark represents an astounding cadence, as SpaceX acknowledged in just a few celebratory tweets final week.
“On common, SpaceX launched each 6 days from certainly one of our three websites with 92% of missions accomplished with flight-proven first stage rocket boosters, and Falcon 9 now holds the world document for many launches of a single automobile kind in a single yr,” the corporate tweeted on Dec. 30 (opens in new tab), shortly after a Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the EROS C-3 Israeli Earth-imaging satellite on SpaceX’s ultimate mission of 2022.
“Most significantly, SpaceX efficiently delivered our clients’ payloads to orbit, deployed further Starlink satellites that add extra capability to our community, and flew important cargo and astronauts to the @space_station and safely returned them again residence [to] Earth,” SpaceX added in another tweet (opens in new tab) that day.
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On common, SpaceX launched each 6 days from certainly one of our three websites with 92% of missions accomplished with flight-proven first stage rocket boosters, and Falcon 9 now holds the world document for many launches of a single automobile kind in a single yrDecember 30, 2022
Starlink is SpaceX’s large constellation of web satellites, which beams service to clients around the globe. As Ars Technica noted (opens in new tab), 34 of SpaceX’s 61 launches in 2022 had been primarily dedicated to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation, which consists of more than 3,300 operational satellites (opens in new tab) (and counting).
The opposite 27 missions served a wide range of clients, together with NASA. SpaceX launched 4 missions to the International Space Station for the company final yr, two astronaut flights and two robotic cargo missions. All 4 employed the corporate’s Dragon capsule and workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
The Falcon 9 flew all however certainly one of SpaceX’s orbital missions final yr. The lone exception was USSF-44, a Nov. 1 flight for the U.S. House Drive that employed the highly effective Falcon Heavy rocket. Earlier than USSF-44, a Falcon Heavy hadn’t lifted off since June 2019.
As spectacular as 61 launches in a single yr is, the brand new document could not final lengthy. Musk said in August (opens in new tab) that SpaceX is “aiming for as much as 100 flights” in 2023. That will be practically two orbital missions per week.
SpaceX already has one flight within the books this yr: A Falcon 9 lofted 114 small satellites on Tuesday (Jan. 3), on a rideshare mission referred to as Transporter-6. Transporter-6 was the corporate’s two hundredth profitable orbital flight total, and it marked the fifteenth mission for that specific Falcon 9’s first stage, tying a SpaceX reuse document set simply final month.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
