It’s time to check how close SpaceX is to achieving its goal of 100 launches in a year, and whether they even have a chance to do it
2023 was expected to be a record year for SpaceX as the number of launches for both Starlink and commercial missions reached an all-time high.
SpaceX has already completed 70 launches this year, surpassing 2022’s record of 61 launches. This is the fourth year in a row that SpaceX has broken its record for most launches in a year. So, in 2020, when this series of records began, SpaceX was able to carry out only 26 launches.
The Starlink system played a significant role in achieving the high rate of SpaceX launches. The company has begun launching a second generation of Starlink Mini satellites to expand and replace the already four-year-old first-generation satellites. Of the 70 launches this year, only 27 were non-Starlink, including NASA crew and cargo flights, commercial launches, and missions for the US Department of Defense.
SpaceX reaches 70 launches in Q3 2023
The bulk of these 70 launches were carried out by Falcon 9 rockets. However, 2023 was also a good year for flights of the Falcon Heavy rocket. Essentially the same Falcon 9 with two additional first stages, the Falcon Heavy sat idle for several years after its first commercial launches in 2019. But in late 2022, the US Air Force flew its first Falcon Heavy mission. Since then, the company has carried out three more Falcon Heavy launches this year and will have another next week when NASA’s Psyche mission launches.
In addition, SpaceX set or at least equaled the 2023 crew service record. For the third year in a row, SpaceX launched three crewed missions. Although there were expected to be four, the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission has been postponed until next year. Even though Boeing’s competitor company has not conducted a single crewed launch this year.
2023 is shaping up to be another record year for SpaceX—no other company comes close. However, reaching the goal of 100 launches this year looks more difficult than it seemed at the beginning of the year.
SpaceX’s current launch rate is one launch every 3.96 days. This is slightly less than the 3.65 days required to reach the 100 launch mark. While that doesn’t seem like a big difference, it still means SpaceX needs to accelerate to complete its final 30 launches in the remaining 90 days of this year. That means one launch every three days, a rate SpaceX has never achieved before.
SpaceX has increased its pace of launches from the end of the second quarter until now. By the end of the second quarter, SpaceX’s launch rate was 4.05 days.
