SpaceX doubled down in 2022, now aiming larger
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had set an bold goal of 1 launch per week in 2022. However the of us at SpaceX outdid themselves in 2022, first attaining that aim after which surpassing it. And now they’re aiming to outdo themselves but once more in 2023.
2022 was a launch record-setter for SpaceX – and the aerospace business at giant – as SpaceX rockets efficiently achieved orbit 61 occasions. The ultimate SpaceX launch got here on December 30, when a Falcon 9 boosted the EROS C-3 satellite for ImageSat Worldwide.
Falcon 9 launched the @ImageSatIntl EROS C-3 mission to orbit in a single day, finishing SpaceX’s 61st and ultimate launch of 2022 — practically double our file of 31 launches set final yr pic.twitter.com/KTQydZvoYC
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 30, 2022
In exceeding CEO Elon Musk’s bold goal of 1 launch per week, SpaceX doubled its personal earlier file of 31 launches set in 2021. And it set the file for the world’s most dependable rocket. With little or no fanfare, the corporate’s PR folks famous the astounding accomplishment by way of a facet observe on Twitter:
On common, SpaceX launched each 6 days from considered one of our three websites with 92% of missions accomplished with flight-proven first stage rocket boosters, and Falcon 9 now holds the world file for many launches of a single automobile sort in a single yr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 30, 2022
One other file yr forward?
For 2023, Musk needs to double the corporate’s launch price – practically – once more:
Yeah, aiming for as much as 100 flights subsequent yr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2022
That’s about two launches each week!
After all, two per week is a median, which implies that typically the launch cadence will exceed it. Simply subsequent week, SpaceX plans to launch a pair of Falcons solely two hours aside.
First, a bunch of Starlink satellites will raise off on a Falcon 9 at 6:54 p.m. PT on Sunday, January 8 (2:54 UTC on January 9) from Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in California. Virtually precisely two hours later – at 11:55 p.m. ET (4:55 UTC) – a second Falcon 9 lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida will carry the OneWeb 16 mission to ship 48 communications satellites. Every of OneWeb’s satellites weighs 150 kg (330 lbs). It is going to be the second time SpaceX has carried its competitor’s satellites into space.
SpaceX has 5 different launches deliberate for January, three of which can carry batches of Starlink satellites.
Hundreds extra SpaceX satellites in 2023
Based on EverydayAstronaut.com, this newest batch of 52 Starlink satellites brings the total launched thus far to three,718. About 300 of these have been deorbited, leaving round 3,400 nonetheless flying. Which means SpaceX must launch about 1,000 Starlink satellites this yr to satisfy its present aim. As EverydayAstronaut.com reported:
Starlink Technology 1 consists of 5 orbital shells and has a total of 4,408 satellite slots. These satellites will completely be launched on Falcon 9, and it’s anticipated for these launches to complete in 2023.
Technology 2 will dwarf Gen 1, with practically 30,000 satellites wanted to finish it. That quantity is 20 occasions greater than the total variety of satellites launched from the time Sputnik was orbited in 1957 till the Starlink program started in 2019.
Crowded skies power satellites to dodge
SpaceX has already made its first launch this yr, internet hosting a ride-share that put 114 tiny CubeSats into space early final week. It described the mission on its website:
On Tuesday, January 3 at 9:56 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched Transporter-6, SpaceX’s sixth devoted smallsat rideshare mission, from Area Launch Complicated 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida. This was the fifteenth launch and touchdown of this Falcon 9 stage booster, which beforehand supported launch of GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34 and 10 Starlink missions.
Based on Professor Hugh Lewis of the Astronautics Analysis Group on the College of Southampton in England, the rising variety of satellites on orbit compelled SpaceX craft to make greater than 26,000 changes to keep away from hitting different objects over the past two years.
SpaceX has reported a total of 26,037 collision avoidance manoeuvres being carried out within the interval 1 December 2020 to 30 November 2022 (i.e. 2 years). The development is a third order polynomial (R^2 = 0.998) [2/n]
— Hugh Lewis (@ProfHughLewis) January 3, 2023
If his numbers are proper, then SpaceX’s Starlink satellites might be compelled to regulate course about a million occasions in total by the tip of 2027.
The reporting by SpaceX means that Starlink satellites (in total) are at the moment performing about 75 collision avoidance manoeuvres every day. With the easy extrapolation, the quantity might be ~1,000 per day by the tip of 2027 [4/n] pic.twitter.com/55pFbcQn0w
— Hugh Lewis (@ProfHughLewis) January 3, 2023
Backside line: SpaceX had set a file launch tempo in 2022 and plans to double it in 2023. In the meantime, visitors is getting heavy on orbit.
