FILE PHOTO: SpaceX has posted the biggest number of orbital launches for the first quarter of this year from January to April, according to a quarterly report.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
SpaceX has posted the biggest number of orbital launches for the first quarter of this year from January to April, according to a quarterly report by BryceTech.
Elon Musk’s company took the first spot with 31 successful missions, while the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation stood in second position with nine orbital launches. Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos took the third spot with five missions. India’s ISRO shared the fifth position with Mitsubishi and the Chinese governmental rocket company, ExPace, with two successful missions each.
The report also revealed that SpaceX outpaced other space providers vastly in terms of the number of spacecrafts launched. While CASC had launched 27 and Roscosmos had launched 24 spaceships, SpaceX had launched a whopping 525.
Country wise, the U.S. providers topped the list with 36 launches, while China had 14 launches and Russia was third with five launches. India and Iran each had a couple of launches.
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Out of the 626 spacecrafts that were launched in total in the quarter, 74% were communication satellites – largely because of Starlink – while 10% were for remote sensing (for observing planets and stars from a distance) and 9% of satellite launches were related to the development of technology.
Just less than 1% were for scientific purposes.
Musk’s SpaceX created a record last year for orbital rocket launches with 96 successful missions, averaging at a pace of a launch held every four days.
Officials said that the company’s goal is to launch as many as 144 Falcon missions this year as it continues to deploy satellites for its Starlink system.
