It's a regular observation of mine that just about every launch from SpaceX is new record of some kind, whether a reuse record for a booster, a record for how fast some mission to mission turnaround took place or something more obscure.
The record this time is a bit more of a face slap to every other launch provider and I frankly don't see any place that looks like it could challenge this.
Investor and former space-industry executive Christian Keil highlighted the achievement in a June 12 X post, which noted that SpaceX had launched 15,262 satellites as of that date. The combined total for all other companies and organizations since the dawn of the space age in 1957 was 15,138, according to Keil.
Graphic from Christian Keil's X channel, named "Pronounced Kyle". June 12th was obviously 10 days ago as I write.
Not very hidden in the graphic is that majority of payloads SpaceX has lifted into orbit have been Starlink and Starshield satellites (like Starlink but with more secure data links for government and military usage) - in dark blue with lighter blue being for other payloads. Of course this makes sense - they've been working toward a goal of 40,000 Starlink satellites and Space.com's article says they've launched 12,318 of the internet spacecraft to LEO, as of June 18, crediting the number to Jonathon McDowell, from whom we've gotten this kind of numbers before.
SpaceX has teased a future that features thousands of Starship flights every year as the company helps humanity settle the moon and Mars, among other ambitious tasks. So, it's safe to say that SpaceX doesn't plan to relinquish its launch lead anytime soon.
That is a very impressive record. And now every launch just adds to that record.
ReplyDeleteCrazy records, and just getting crazier and crazier even before Starfall goes active and before Starship goes active.