SpaceX

SpaceX is launching rockets with increasing frequency

The launch on June 4th, 2010 of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral is a turning point in the development of private space flight. Since that first successful test flight, Falcon 9 has gone on to become the first orbital class rocket to be reused and the first commercial rocket to ferry human passengers to the ISS.

The chart above shows the accumulated launches SpaceX did in a given year. It is useful for extrapolating launch cadence to total yearly launch count. You can see just how quickly SpaceX is to achieving their goal of a rocket that can be flown and reflown mutliple times per week.

The important point about Falcon 9, so called because its lift-off is propelled by nine of SpaceX's proprietary Merlin rocket motors, is that it is powerful enough to put people into orbit. The 230-foot-tall rocket weighs a staggering 1,207,920 pounds and can shuttle a payload weighing 50,265 pounds to low-Earth orbit and a payload of 8,860 pounds to Mars. At sea-level, Falcon 9 can generate a whopping 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

The Falcon 9 rocket is a two-stage affair. The heavy lifting is done by the nine-engine cluster, fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen. That burns for three (3) minutes, before being jettisoned. The payload, a capsule known as Dragon, is then carried into orbit by a single-Merlin-engined second stage that burns for an additional six (6) minutes. The unmanned version of that capsule is designed to accommodate six tons of cargo for the inhabitants of the space station. That cargo could be replaced by satellites or anything else the client wants.

Other private space companies are either restricted to launching small, unmanned satellites (Orbital Sciences Corporation's Pegasus, for example), or—in the case of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic—hope to take tourists on suborbital hops to briefly experience zero gravity. Other rockets of this class include Boeing's Delta IV and the Atlas V, operated jointly by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Reusability

Everything about space flight is extreme. Even relatively modest rockets are hundreds of feet tall. The biggest (the Saturn V, which launched astronauts to the Moon) remains the most powerful vehicle ever built. But space flight is extremely expensive, too. One reason for that is, despite all their technological sophistication, rockets are usually one-shot wonders. After they have fired their engines for a few minutes they are left to fall back to Earth, usually splashing ignominiously into the ocean.

Imagine if airplanes could only fly once before being disposed of. Air travel would be impossibly expensive. The dream therefore has been to make reusable rockets. Making something able to fly more than once would slash the cost of getting into space. History hints that reusability is difficult to do properly. The space shuttle itself, for instance, was intended to fly every week. In the end, it made only 135 trips over the course of 30 years.

Booster reuse

Company milestones

2010: Falcon 9's First Test Flight

On June 4, 2010, Falcon 9 nailed its first ever test flight. At 2:45 p.m. local time, the rocket blasted off from the coastal launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It reached an orbit 155 miles above Earth.

"We got our Falcon 9 rocket to orbit," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk gleefully told reporters at the time. "It achieved a near bull's eye."

2015: Falcon 9 Sticks its First Landing

The third time's the charm. After two previous attempts, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its orbital-class Falcon 9 rocket back on Earth for the first time. Shortly after Falcon 9 and its cargo launched at 8:29 p.m. ET on Dec. 21, 2015, the first stage separated and returned to Earth for a soft landing, one that would change the course of spaceflight forever.

(A month earlier, the Bezos-owned spaceflight company Blue Origin landed its New Shepard rocket after a quick suborbital jaunt.)

2016: Falcon 9 Nails its Landing at Sea

After one successful ground landing and multiple failed attempts to land at sea and—some of which were pretty spectacular—SpaceX finally nailed an ocean landing aboard the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." A chase plane captured the footage shortly after the April 8, 2016, launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

2016: An Explosion on the Pad

On Sept. 1, 2016, SpaceX lost one of its Falcon 9 rockets on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a static fire test. Unfortunately, the vehicle and its $195 million dollar payload—an AMOS-6 satellite to be used by Facebook (now META)—were lost.

The company later announced that a pressure vessel containing chilled helium ruptured after liquid oxygen found its way between the tank and its carbon fiber lining.

2017: SpaceX Reuses Rocket For First Time

On March 30, 2017, SpaceX launched a previously flown rocket for the first time. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and hoisted an SES-10 communications satellite into orbit before returning to Earth.

2018: Falcon Heavy Launch

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy Rocket for the first time. The spacecraft, powered by three Falcon 9 rockets (that's a total of 27 Merlin engines, if you're counting!) launched one of Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster into a Mars-like orbit.

The spacecraft's two boosters made it back to their landing pads safely. The core stage, however, did not stick its ocean landing.

2018: Falcon 9 falls into the sea

Just after launching and separating from its Commercial Resupply Mission 16 cargo on Dec. 5, 2018, Falcon 9 flipped around and started the journey back to Earth. Unfortunately, as it barreled back toward Earth, a stalled grid fin hydraulic pump caused it to role and tumble into the sea. It was the first time Falcon 9 had failed to stick a ground landing.

2019: Commercial Crew Demo-1 Launch

Falcon 9 successfully sent the Dragon capsule into orbit for its first demonstration mission. The spacecraft launched at 2:49 a.m. ET on March 2, 2019, from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Demo-1 mission successfully showed that the Dragon capsule could dock and undock with the International Space Station.

Falcon 9 completed its mission, too, safely landing back on the autonomous drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" shortly after launch.

2020: Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test

Falcon 9 goes KABOOM. Leading up to the successful launch of the Demo-2 mission, SpaceX and NASA conducted a critical in-flight abort test to evaluate the capsule's ability to jettison to safety in the even of an emergency.

SpaceX launched its Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 at 10:30 a.m. ET. Only one vehicle returned. Shortly after the spacecraft launched, the capsule separated from Falcon 9 and safely shot off across the sky.

2020: Commercial Crew Demo-2 Launch

At 3:22 p.m. ET on May 30, SpaceX's worm-branded Falcon 9 rocket became the first commercial rocket to lift astronauts into space.

The blast from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center catapulted NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into space and solidified Falcon 9's place in spaceflight history.

Starship

Starship is the world’s largest rocket. It consists of two parts: the Super Heavy booster stage, a behemoth 71 meters tall with 33 engines, and the 50 meters Starship upper stage. On Starship’s first two test flights it failed to reach orbit; it managed on the third, in March, but then broke apart while re-entering the atmosphere.

Starlink

Traffic in the sky

Low Earth orbit is getting crowded, in particular by SpaceX's Starlink communication satellites. There are now over 3,300 in operation, with thousands more planned to launch.