SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in Second Flight in Two Days
SpaceX launches a fresh batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the company’s second launch of Starlink satellites in two days after a Falcon 9 placed 46 satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
It was SpaceX’s sixth launch of July and 20th dedicated Starlink flight of 2022. Elon Musk’s company has launched a record 33 times since Jan. 1 with more than five months left in the year. The company has orbited just under 1,250 payloads.
SpaceX Launches
January – July 24, 2022
| Spacecraft | Satellite Type(s) | Customer(s) | Number of Launches | Satellites/ Payloads/Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starlink | Broadband | SpaceX | 20 | 1,013 |
| Transporter-3, -4, -5 | Multiple Rideshare | Multiple | 3 | 204 |
| Crew-4, Axiom-1 | Human Spaceflight | NASA, Axiom Space | 2 | 2 |
| Crew-4, Axiom-1 | Human Spaceflight | NASA, Axiom Space | –* | 8 |
| Cargo Dragon 2 | ISS Resupply | NASA | 1 | 1 |
| BeaverCube, CapSat-1, CLICK A, D3, JAGSAT, TUMnanoSat | Technology Demonstration, Education | ERAU Daytona Beach, MIT, The Weiss School, University of South Alabama, Technical University of Moldova | –^ | 6 |
| Globalstar FM15, Nilesat-301, SES-22 | Commercial Communications | Globalstar, Nilesat, SES | 3 | 3 |
| USA-328, 329, 330, 331 | Unknown | U.S. Department of Defense | —+ | 4 |
| NROL-87, Intruder 13A, Intruder 13B | Reconnaissance, Electronic Intelligence | National Reconnaissance Office | 2 | 3 |
| SARah-1 | Reconnaissance | Bundeswehr (German Military) | 1 | 1 |
| COSMO-SkyMed 2nd-generation | Earth Observation (civilian/military) | Italian Space Agency | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | 1,246 |
^ 6 CubeSats flown on Cargo Dragon 2 to be deployed from ISS
+ Secondary payloads on Globalstar FM15 launch
SpaceX has launched 1,013 Starlink satellites this year and 2,911 spacecraft overall, with 2,620 satellites still working.
38 responses to “SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites in Second Flight in Two Days”
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cant sell the launches to paying customers
Starlink is now in 60 countries. SpaceX is making its own market for the Falcon 9 and will do the same for Starship. Capitalism, it’s a helluva thing.
But Boeing has a very strong lobbying game.
SpaceX is making its own market for the Falcon 9 and will do the same for Starship. Capitalism, it’s a helluva thing.”
it is a heck of a thing (OK this is not facebook)…hellofva thing 🙂 ie capitalism . but how musk is doing it is 1) admitting that there is no market for the launch system he built which tells me that the money is not that much different than the launch systems that were there before…and 2) adopting the path that is the most failure prone.
Its like me shifting the farm from cotton production to cattle production and then having to build a resturant chain to sell the beef to. Or any airplane manufacture starting the airline that would fly the planes…or …..
who knows it might all work. it did in a limited way in the 30’s as one airplane manufacture did form an airline but that was a unique thing and the US government quickly broke it up
but the thing that should concern us all is that it doesnt appear like he could expand the market that Falcon 9 was designed to serve. No Herb K. there 🙂
“But Boeing has a very strong lobbying game.” I would not know as 1) I dont work in that department and 2) dont care
and I am not sure why its relative to this conversation?
Actually opening a restaurant to sell your own beef would fit right in with the trend of “farm to table” which is built around eliminating intermediaries. There is now also a movement for organic ranchers to set up their own butcher outlets to get around the packing houses that large agri-corporations run.
you dont have any real business that you own right? I do
it took me 10 (ok I stopped losing money at 8) years to turn the cotton farm into a beef farm…I am in a unique situation because literally I am the sovereign of the land in place of my 9th grandfather and my daughters will do it as a first for their 10th grandfather. there is no trend of farm to fork. let me explain it to you. the state or the federal government has to be the folks who get a warrant to come on my land. and it has to be from a superior court or district court…
my job is to pass along the farm in better shape than I will
My seven year old makes more money in a month then you do. and its real money 🙂
when Musk dies musk world will go with him. Like Trippe
when my time comes. the next chapter starts and will be set for another 186 years and counting.
Must be nice to be born into a family that established its wealth early on land it took from others. It also explains a lot about your attitude towards an “uppity” immigrant like Elon Musk since you are part of the privileged 1% that enjoys bragging about their wealth while never having to really struggle for anything. My grandfather by contrast had to escape Russian occupied Poland to reach the United States, working his way here shoveling coal on a tramp steamer, his father, and those before him, having been born under the Serf system that Russia used until the 1860’s to exploit it’s occupied lands.
My father spent his life working as a truck driver after he dropped out of school when his teachers in the Polish ghetto in Chicago told him that Polish peasants were too stupid to go to college to be an engineer. He was very interested in space and tried to make it to New Mexico so he could volunteer to work with Dr. Goddard, but the railroad police caught him and shipped him home where he joined the CCC to help support his parents and siblings. He was very proud to see me earn my Ph.D. in Business Administration with my dissertation on Commercial Spaceports and even went back to school himself after retiring to earn an Associate in Mathematics to prove he could have been an engineer if only he had the opportunity to go to school.
Pity you never did anything with your wealth except use it to make your family wealthier. It is also ironic that you complained about Elon Musk harming the environment when the generations of your family built their wealth on the destruction of the rich coastal Texas prairie ecosystem that put those species on the endangered list.
on land it took from others.”
If Gustav took the land from anyone it was from a corrupt Mexican government. now revolutions are a tricky thing but I suspect I would have supported both the Texas and US revolution against their parent countries. If Karl, Gustav’s dad took it from anyone it was really Stephen Austin. I dont know but there are no family tales of glory in “taking the land”. We are in the flood plain of the Brazos aka Alta Loma and there was no real “indian” group hanging out in that part of Texas. it was mostly farm land and the Indians didnt farm much. and there were hurricanes. The relatives could not afford Austin’s money that he wanted for a settlement division and I dont think really could go much farther after landing in New Orleans.
I am very pro immigration. I really am ok with even illegal immigration. As for Elon. what bothers me personally about him is 1) he has no morals, 2) believes that his success is typical of “hard work” and 3) has no regard for his workers. how many kids with how many women? How many affairs…? sure he is a role model
as for worry about things. plenty to worry about. on 6 Jan I thought that this part of my life was going to have to be in armed resistance against a fascist who had seized the presidency. he came close.
So because the land was used by First Nation peoples for their Hunting/Gathering lifestyle and not for farming it was OK for whoever took it originally to take it. Of course given how the First Nation people were being wiped out as a result of the diseases the settlers bought with them it could also be argued they didn’t wouldn’t need as much land to live on anyway…
I find it sad that you have so little faith in the military and federal law enforcement that you believe they would have followed Trump…
January 6 was basically the result of the Capital Police being unable to keep a few hundred nutty protesters under control, basically another failure of law enforcement.
Funny, on Jan. 20th, 2021 I had the same thought. Fortunately the fascist usurper has proven such a bust his own co-conspirators are now looking for ways to dump him and a wised-up American public seems ready to show his whole wretched pack of putschists the door.
When Trippe died, Pan Am hung on for another decade. But Trippe ran an airline, he didn’t make planes. Boeing didn’t die along with Trippe or even with Pan Am. Which is not to say Boeing has exactly been displaying radiant good health lately.
When Musk goes, SpaceX will continue until it is overtaken by some newer outfit run by some young whipper-snapper like Musk has been anent OldSpace. If Musk manages to match Trippe in the lifespan sweepstakes, he’s still got another 30 years. Given what he’s managed to do in the last 20, I think another 30 years of Musk will prove eye-popping, though I won’t be around, by then, to see it.
Ever driven I-5 from SF to LA and stopped at Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant for lunch?
It’s a fantastic steakhouse that a cattle company built near their feedlots.
That they’ve built a successful restaurant that serves their steaks doesn’t mean their wholesale beef business is a failure. Far from it, they are one of the largest beef suppliers in the US.
If you built a textile mill that wouldn’t mean you were a failed cotton farmer, it would mean you were enterprising and found a market you could vertically supply and make more money.
But damn those capitalists! If they find a new market to exploit, that must prove they’ve failed in the first, right?
SpaceX launching Starlink doesn’t mean that the 11 launches they did for paying customers this year (1.5 per month) didn’t happen. I haven’t looked through the stats year by year, but I don’t remember the post-Apollo US market having 1.5 launches per month before the Falcon 9 came along.
flown in there several times driven less. they are one of the largest non Indian reservation “farm to fork” places in the country BUT it would surprise me if that is what carries their business…they have 18000 or so acres and most of its beef…(not all) but even if it is…when Musk pulls this off you will find I am one of the first to congratulate him
I like capitalism. I dont mind high gas prices or high prices to eat prime beef out. pays for the kids education 🙂
SpaceX is exploiting the cost savings from F9 launches to break into other markets (Satellite Internet) which increases the launch rate of the F9. The F9 is still a viable LV at a lower flight rate.
hope so
There is no hope about it. The F9 used to fly at a much lower flight rate just a few years ago before the Starlink flights started. Other LV’s fly at a much lower flight rate than the F9 and are perfectly viable LV’s.
the flight rate says little about cost. the inability to sell launches to an outside customer does
13 F9 launches so far this year are not Starlink launches. That tells me that SpaceX has no problem selling launches to other customers. Especially when compared to the flight rate of other US launch providers.
it doesnt tell me that thats about a normal US launch rate post shuttle
In 2012 the US had 13 Orbital launches for all US launch providers. What do you think is the normal US Orbital launch rate post shuttle?
Thats my point. the cadence is not that high unless you throw in Starlink launches
The cadence is high if you compare it to previous years. In 2017 SpaceX launched 18 times with the F9 for the full year. This is before Starlink launches. SpaceX has 13 non Starlink launches for this year so far in the first 7-months and can have potentially about 25-30 non-starlink launches for the full year if payloads arrive as scheduled from customers. Based on the data we have, SpaceX has no problem selling launches to outside customers based on it’s cadence. ULA maintains a launch rate of about 8-12 launches per year. So yes the SpaceX launch cadence is high as compared to ULA and previous years for SpaceX, even if you remove Starlink launches.
see what happens
We don’t have to see what happens. SpaceX has no problem selling launches to outside customers. SpaceX is in a fairly strong position in the launch market for selling launch services right now. ULA didn’t even compete for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope because they have no more available Atlas-V launches and Vulcan hasn’t cleared the tower on it’s first launch. All three of it’s main competitors, ESA, ULA and Blue Origin don’t have available launch vehicles that have actually flown. They are only able to sell launch services for vehicles that have yet to have launched. That will change as these other launch vehicles start flying but as of right now, SpaceX has no problem selling launch services for the F9.
then why dont they?
SpaceX does sell launch services and has a high cadence of non Starlink launches.
They are basically dominating the launches that are being bought, expect for the ones being given to their competitors to keep them in business.
“Normal US launch rate post shuttle”
The total US orbital launch rate in 20212 was 0.92 launches per month.
Non-Starlink F9 launches alone (not counting launches from other us providers) in 2022 have been at a rate of 1.5 per month.
I think what Robert is trying to say, but is not getting across, is that the commercial missions SX is flying were going to fly to space on some booster in any case, whether it was F9, Ariane, Proton, Soyuz, Long March, ULA, Rocket Lab, PSLV, GSLV, or whatever. His point (correct me if I am wrong, Robert) is that SX really hasn’t generated any commercial launches that weren’t going to happen anyway, with or without SX. Of the commercial launches so far this year, we have:
1-Transporter 3: Some sats might not have flown without F9.
2-CSG-2: Clearly going to space.
3-NROL-87: Clearly going to space.
4-Transporter 4: See 1 above.
5-Axiom-1: Wouldn’t have flown without SX.
6-NROL-85: Clearly going to space.
7-Crew-4: Would have gone on Soyuz if no Crew Dragon.
8-Transporter 5: See 1 above.
9-Nilesat-301: Clearly going to space.
10-SARah 1: Clearly going to space.
11-GlobalStar-2: Clearly going to space.
12-SES-22: Clearly going to space.
13-CRS-25: Would have gone via Antares or Progress if no F9.
The ones where I said “Clearly going to space” means that whoever built those sats and/or contracted for those launches was going to do so regardless of the existence of SX.
So out of 13 commercial launches so far, 9 would have gone anyway. Some of the sats on the three transporter missions would have gone anyway, call it 50-50. All of them might have gone on a combo of Rocket Lab, PSLV, and possibly Vega.
This leaves *only* the Axiom-1 mission that was totally dependent on the existence of SX.
Some of the other missions might not have flown as soon as they did, but they would have flown.
So back to Robert’s presumed point, most of what SX is launching hasn’t served to expand the space economy. It’s just a movement of payloads from other launchers to F9, not a huge net increase in commercial payloads overall.
There is no such inability. I don’t know why you keep insisting otherwise. And a high flight rate certainly says at least one thing about costs – that fixed costs per flight are lower.
There’s a considerable market for SpaceX’s launch system as the number of non-Starlink missions clearly shows. But the Starlink launches are also part of new demand, they just happen to benefit the company doing the launching in ways other than launch revenue. And if SpaceX had not expanded the overall launch market, the world total of orbital and deep space launches wouldn’t now be at record levels.
Actually SpaceX is just taking a page from Boeing who used 60 of the 75 B-247’s it built to fly passengers directly on its own airline instead of selling them to other customers who weren’t ready for them. It was Boeing’s start in the airline business.
There have been about the same number of paying customers this year as all of last year, and plenty more such coming in the final five months of the year. So no.
What a show ladies and gentlemen. In this corner the legacy tag team of Russia/China with 33 points on the board. And in this corner the lone immigrant contender upstart also with 33 points on the board. It’s going to be a slammin second half so stay tuned in as we see if the national teams of the old guard will out score the contender.
If SpaceX continues with this trend it will soon be operating more satellites than the rest of the world.
And there are indications that SpaceX may attempt to deploy Starlink Generation 2 satellites on the first Starship flight. Talk about going for the belchers!
Why are they coming after me??
Gotta love auto-correct. It should be “bleachers”.?
lol
Corrected story. Sunday flight was the 20th dedicated Starlink launch of the year.