Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, set an ambitious goal of one launch every week in 2022. But SpaceX outdid themselves in 2022, first meeting and then exceeding that target. And now they plan to outdo themselves once more in 2023.
Details about in 2023, SpaceX plans to conduct 100 launches
SpaceX rockets successfully achieved orbit 61 times in 2022, setting a launch record for SpaceX and the aerospace industry as a whole. On December 30, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off with the EROS C-3 satellite for ImageSat International.
SpaceX surpassed its previous record of 31 missions achieved in 2021 by exceeding CEO Elon Musk’s ambitious objective of one launch per week. It also set the record for the most dependable rocket in the world. The company’s public relations team recognised the incredible achievement in a side comment on Twitter with minimal fanfare.
EverydayAstronaut.com reports that the latest batch of 52 Starlink satellites takes the total number of satellites launched to 3,718. Around 300 of them have been deorbited, leaving approximately 3,400 still in orbit. To fulfil its current target, SpaceX will need to launch approximately 1,000 Starlink satellites this year. According to EverydayAstronaut.com.
Generation 2 will dwarf Generation 1, requiring approximately 30,000 satellites to complete. That figure is 20 times greater than the total number of satellites launched from the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the start of the Starlink programme in 2019.
According to Professor Hugh Lewis of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton in England, the increasing number of satellites in orbit has required SpaceX vessels to make over 26,000 adjustments to avoid colliding with other objects over the previous two years.
If his calculations are correct, SpaceX’s Starlink satellites will be forced to change course almost one million times by the end of 2027.
