![A Falcon 9 rocket launches in January 2023 carrying a GPS III satellite into orbit.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GPS-III-6-Jan-2023-0667-2-800x534.jpg)
Trevor Mahlmann
After our inaugural rating last 12 months, Ars Technica is again publishing a listing of essentially the most achieved US business launch firms. We hope the list sparks debate, discussion, and appreciation for the challenge of operating a successful rocket company.
Please note that this can be a subjective list, although hard metrics similar to total launches, tonnage to orbit, success rate, and more were all vital aspects in the choice. And our focus stays on what each company achieved in 2023, not on what they may do in the longer term. Actually there can be more reshuffling next 12 months.
1. SpaceX (no change)
Just one rocket company approached a mind-boggling 100 launches this 12 months. Just one company reused greater than 90 percent of the rockets it launched in 2023. Just one company launched a million kilograms of cargo into orbit. And just one company debuted the (privately developed) largest and strongest rocket ever seen—Starship. After which launched it again just months in a while a mostly successful flight.
Which feat is most impressive? Is it the unprecedented cadence? Launching nearly two rockets every week is incredible, a testament to the extremely exertions done by the SpaceX teams in California, Texas, and Florida. But getting Starship to fly twice in only seven months, after sand-blasting the launch pad on the primary attempt, is equally remarkable. SpaceX is essentially the most elite launch company on this planet, and it is just not close.
Here’s yet another statistic for you, courtesy of a reader. SpaceX, for all of its 90-plus launches this 12 months, expended a complete of six Falcon cores (4 Heavy centers and two side boosters). United Launch Alliance, its one-time primary competitor, expended five—in three total launches.
2. Rocket Lab (+1)
Rocket Lab has ascended to the number two position due to its execution this 12 months. The corporate set a brand new record (10) for launches in a calendar 12 months. Rocket Lab also had another notable firsts, including opening its first US-based launch site at Wallops Island in Virginia, launching its first hypersonic mission, HASTE, and re-flying a Rutherford rocket engine for the primary time as a part of its efforts to reuse Electron first stages.
Rocket Lab also continued to work on its Neutron vehicle, although the medium-lift launcher likely won’t debut until no less than 2025.
It wasn’t an ideal 12 months, after all. Notably, the corporate’s ninth launch attempt of the 12 months—a dedicated mission for Capella Space—was lost on account of an anomaly after the second stage separated. This was the corporate’s fourth failure in 40 orbital launches. While not a terrible record, it is not an ideal one, either.