SpaceX Plans To Carry Out 144 Rocket Launches Into Orbit Next Year
SpaceX Vice President of Assembly and Flight Reliability Bill Gerstenmaier said Wednesday at a hearing before the US Senate Subcommittee on Space and Science that the company plans to carry out about 100 launches this year. This will require a significant increase in launch frequency, to one mission every 2.8 days, compared to the current average of one mission every 3.9 days.
According to Gerstenmaier, next year the frequency of launches will be increased to 12 per month, which will allow about 144 launch vehicle flights into orbit per year. This goal is quite achievable, since on some days SpaceX performed two launches. For example, in March of this year, it sent two Falcon 9 rockets into orbit less than 4.5 hours apart.
Gerstenmaier noted that to date, SpaceX has already carried out 74 launches, and also conducted a test flight of the new rocket for landing people on the Moon, Starship. The attempt ended in an accident, however, according to the vice president, even an unsuccessful launch gave specialists a large amount of useful information for future launches.
