Last night at 10:47 p.m. ET (02:47 UTC), SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, breaking their company record of 61 launches in a 12 months.
The 62nd launch comes with 4 months still remaining within the 12 months and lots of launches still left on the schedule. SpaceX could approach the low 90s by 12 months’s end. SpaceX is much ahead of every other launch provider in terms of mass to orbit, mostly resulting from quite a few Starlink launches.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/p7oPfd3eMW
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2023
Elon Musk has stated they wish to launch 100 in a 12 months, and the one thing that seems to face in the best way of that goal is vehicle and payload availability. SpaceX currently has 17 flight-proven Falcon 9 first-stage rockets in various stages of readiness. A couple of of those are assigned as Falcon Heavy side boosters.
Together with the 17 Falcon 9 rockets on the ready, there are multiple latest Falcon 9s and Falcon Heavy center cores in progress as well, so vehicle availability shouldn’t pose an issue for the corporate.
As for the 21 Starlink satellites launched last night, they separated from the 2nd stage an hour and five minutes after lift-off, they usually were inserted right into a 43-degree orbital inclination.
This mission kicked off what may very well be one other busy month for SpaceX, having just come off a nine-launch campaign in August. September could see as much as eight launches, including the potential for a Starship test launch. Starship still has work to do, but there are notices for a mid to late-month launch of the huge rocket.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/oLysbrAl9e
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2023
After launching from Launch Complex 39A, Booster 1073 landed on the droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” completing its tenth mission to space and back. It was also the 149th successful Falcon recovery in a row.
The subsequent launch for SpaceX will probably be one other Starlink mission from Florida, currently scheduled for NET September eighth.
With SpaceX breaking their launch record and 4 more months left within the 12 months, what number of do you think that they may achieve for 2023? The sky isn’t the limit anymore.