The American aerospace company SpaceX and its workhorse, the reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle, have already broken many records. However, even without them, the performance of this launch vehicle and SpaceX’s achievements look very impressive. For example, it turned out that in this year alone the Falcon 9 made more flights than the Space Shuttle in the 30-year program.
Image source: SpaceX
Early last week, the company launched another batch of Starlink telecommunications satellites into orbit. The launch, carried out from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marked the 400th successful flight for Falcon 9 rockets. Moreover, according to SpaceX, the mission also marked the 375th successful landing of the first stage of the carrier. In addition to this, SpaceX also broke its own record for the time to prepare the first stage for reuse – 13 days and 12 hours. This is significantly better than the previous achievement of 21 days spent on servicing the first stage.
It is curious that before the end of last week, SpaceX conducted two more launches of Falcon 9 rockets, and this happened on the same day with a difference of just over three hours. As part of these missions, Starlink satellites were delivered into orbit, as well as two Starshield devices – a special version of Starlink for the US Department of Defense. As a result, the company conducted 16 space launches throughout November, which became a new record. The previous best in a month was 14 starts. At the same time, SpaceX announced its intention to conduct 15 more launches using Falcon 9 rockets in December.
For the entire year, the company has already conducted 119 space missions, i.e. On average, Falcon 9 rockets took off every 2.3 days during the year, which looks pretty impressive. The company has already surpassed its previous record for the number of Falcon 9 launches per year (92 missions). If no unforeseen circumstances arise in December, the number of Falcon 9 launches in 2024 will increase to 134 times, and taking into account the two flights of the giant Falcon Heavy rocket, SpaceX will have 136 missions.
This is a more than impressive result. By comparison, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Shuttle completed 135 flights over three decades of use. Note that the shuttle had a much more complex design and there were always people on board. Despite this, it is historically significant that SpaceX, with the help of its reusable rockets, can conduct as many missions in a year as have taken place in the entire period of the existence of the space shuttle.
SpaceX’s main goal in implementing the Falcon program was to demonstrate the ability to conduct fast and inexpensive space launches using reusable launch vehicles. According to one estimate, each mission using the Shuttle cost NASA $1.5 billion. By comparison, SpaceX costs $15 million to launch a single Falcon 9 rocket. This means that Elon Musk’s company was able to achieve speed flight is approximately 30 times higher than that of the Shuttle, and the cost of one launch has decreased by 100 times. According to enthusiasts, SpaceX has launched as many rockets this year as the state corporation Roscosmos has launched since 2013, United Launch Alliance since 2010, and Arianespace since 2009. This year alone, Falcon 9 rockets have been in space more often than Ariane 4, Ariane 5 or Atlas V boosters over their entire operational life.