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Year: 2022
Europe, India and Japan Faced Launch Delays & Setbacks in 2022
An Ariane 5 rocket launches the Galaxy 35 and Galaxy 36 geosynchronous communications satellites for Intelsat and the MTG-I1 meteorology satellite for Eumetsat. (Credit: Arianespace)

Part 2: U.S. & Dominated Launch Industry in 2022, Russia Finishes a Distant Third

Part 2 of 2

The U.S. and China set new launch records in 2022. While lagged far behind in third place, Russia could take pride in the fact that all its launches were successful. The year didn’t go quite as well for three other major launching powers, however.

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  • December 31, 2022
SpaceX and CASC Close Out Record Launch Year
A Falcon 9 launches the EROS-C3 satellite on Dec. 29, 2022. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched two times apiece this week to end a record year that saw 186 launch attempts around the world.

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  • December 31, 2022
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Dmitrys: Russian Space Industry Ends 2022 in Isolation
Soyuz-2 rocket launches 34 OneWeb broadband satellites from the Guiana Space Center. (Credit: Copyright ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique Video du CSG – P Piron)

The year looked bright for Russia’s space program as 2022 dawned. Seven Soyuz launches would complete deployment of OneWeb’s 648-satellite broadband constellation. In August, a Proton booster would launch the joint European-Russian ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover to the Red Planet.

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  • December 30, 2022
U.S. & China Dominated Launch Industry in 2022, Russia Finishes a Distant Third
A SpaceX Faclon 9 launches the O3b mPOWER FM21 and O3b mPower FM22 communications satellites from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 16, 2022. (Credit: SpaceX)

Part 1 of 2

SpaceX conducted its 61st launch of 2022 on Thursday to wrap up a record year that saw 186 orbital launch attempts worldwide. A Falcon 9 booster launched the EROS-C3 for ImageSat of Israel from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Let’s take a look at launch totals worldwide and how the top three nations — United States, China and Russia — faired this year. We will look at launches by other nations in a future post.

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  • December 30, 2022
Russia’s 2022 Launch Total Reduced by Ruptured Relations with West Over Ukraine
The Soyuz MS-22 rocket is launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos onboard, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in March 2023. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Russia’s conducted 22 launches without any failures in 2022. Although that is a respectable number, it left a nation that once led the world in orbital flights a distant third behind the United States (87) and China (64) in a record year with 186 launches.

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  • December 30, 2022
This Week on The Space Show

This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston: Tuesday, December 27. 7 PM PST (9 PM CST; 10 PM EST): We welcome back DR. TOM SPILKER for Orbital Assembly Co. updates. Wednesday, December 28. Hotel Mars pre-recorded. See the Upcoming Show Menu at www.thespaceshow.com for details. Wednesday, December 28. SPECIAL SHOW: 7 PM PST; 10 PM EST: We welcome back DR. HAYM BENAROYA with RAYMOND MARTIN on their […]

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  • December 28, 2022
Space Biz Roundup: Recent Raises, Contracts & Partnerships
The Moon as seen from the International Space Station (Credit: ESA/NASA)

Updated 9:59 a.m. PST on 12/29/2022: Added Axiom Space’s $50 million Series C round.

Getting caught up on all the recent fundraising, contracts and more in the quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

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  • December 28, 2022
Space SPAC Index: Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic Back in News as Stock Hits All-Time Low; Astra, Spire, Momentus and BigBear Crash Below $1
Richard Branson celebrates the first Virgin Galactic trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Credit Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic (NYS: SPCE) is back in the news this week in the form of a HBO documentary about company founder Richard Branson as the company’s stock hit an all-time low of $3.28 on Tuesday. And it turns out I am featured in Part 4 of the documentary.

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  • December 27, 2022
Who Launched What on SpaceX’s Five Transporter Missions
Falcon 9 launches the Transporter-3 rideshare mission. (Credit: SpaceX webcast)

Third in a Series

Part I: Elon Musk Drinks Your Milkshake: The Impact of SpaceX Rideshare Missions on the Small Launch Market
Part II: Satellite Operators Face Limited Selection of Small Launch Vehicles as Sector Slowly Emerges

In Part I of this series, we looked at how development of small satellite launchers was being impacted by rideshare and secondary payload launches aboard larger boosters. In Part II, we examined the limited number of small boosters available to satellite operators who want to launch their payloads.

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  • December 23, 2022