A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Oct. 13, 2023.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk’s SpaceX smashed its earlier annual record for orbital rocket launches, pulling off 96 successful missions in 2023 at a blistering common launch tempo of each 4 days.
SpaceX this yr achieved 91 launches with its Falcon 9 rocket and one other 5 with the Falcon Heavy, topping its previous annual record of 61 orbital launches in 2022. For context, SpaceX launched Falcon 9 extra instances this yr than in all the first decade after the rocket’s debut.
Along the way in which this yr, SpaceX landed its 250th orbital rocket booster in addition to launched and landed a single rocket 19 instances, persevering with to push the boundaries of reusing rockets. This week, SpaceX additionally set a new firm record for shortest time between orbital launches, at slightly below 3 hours, which represents the tightest time between Florida launches since NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966.
What’s extra, SpaceX’s launch rely for the yr doesn’t embody its pair of Starship test flights, which weren’t carrying business payloads sure for orbit.
Jon Edwards, SpaceX vice chairman of Falcon launch autos, wrote in a social media publish that only a few years in the past Musk prompt “a aim of 100 launches as a thought experiment.”
“Here we’re. I’m so extremely proud to work with one of the best crew on earth, and so excited to see what we obtain subsequent yr,” Edwards wrote.
SpaceX officers have stated the corporate goals to launch as many as 144 Falcon missions in 2024, because it continues to deploy satellites for the Starlink system that drives a significant portion of its $180 billion valuation.