Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company SpaceX resumed launch activities over the weekend after Christmas, bringing the total number of launches so far this year to 133.
What Happened: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from California on Saturday and the Astranis: From One to Many mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Florida on Sunday.
The two missions mark the company’s 132nd and 133rd launch this year.
However, the company is not done launching this year. It is also eyeing launching 21 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida on Dec. 31. If successful, it would take SpaceX’s total launches this year to 134, not including Starship test flights.
Why It Matters: For the entirety of 2023, SpaceX only completed 96 launches, not including two test flights of the company’s Starship launch vehicle.
SpaceX was initially looking to complete 144 launches this year or an average of 12 times per month.
However, SpaceX VP of Launch Kiko Dontchev said in November that the company would not make its goal of 144 launches this year but is still targeting many more until year-end.
SpaceX also conducted four test flights of its ambitious Starship launch vehicle this year, the last of which was in November. The vehicle, part of Musk’s dream to take humans back to the surface of the Moon and further onto Mars, is in the development and testing phase and is yet to carry any payload to orbit.
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