On Friday, SpaceX flew its 17th mission of the year.
Launching from Cape Canaveral, the Starlink 4-16 mission delivered 53 new broadband satellites to space. The mission’s booster (tail name B1062) was previously flown just three weeks prior on the Ax-1 mission. B1062 has also previously launched two GPS spacecraft, Inspiration4, and another Starlink mission.
All-time SpaceX stats: 155 total launches, 117 landings, and 94 reflown rockets. Friday’s mission was the quickest turnaround for a Falcon booster. And nearly 2,200 Starlinks are currently in orbit, per astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, with 2,166 of those satellites active and operational.
Let’s extrapolate…SpaceX, as of Friday, is operating at an annual run rate of ~52 launches a year. According to Elon, SpaceX is targeting 60 Falcon 9/Heavy flights this year, which would be nearly double 2021’s total of 31.
