Elon Musk's SpaceX on Friday broke its record for the number of rockets launched in a calendar year, topping last year's slate of 31 missions amid a whirlwind campaign to launch its own internet satellites into orbit.
SpaceX's 32nd launch of 2022 using its workhorse Falcon 9
rocket comes as the company races to build a constellation of broadband
satellites called Starlink, a largely consumer-based service with hundreds of
thousands of internet users.
The mission took off from the company's California
launchsite at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. SpaceX so far has launched
nearly 3,000 Starlink satellites to space.
Friday's mission keeps SpaceX on pace to reach its goal of
52 orbital missions by year's end, nearly doubling its annual launch cadence
with the reusable Falcon 9 that SpaceX says can be reflown up to 15 times.
A majority of those missions have been, and are scheduled to
be in-house Starlink missions.
The company, founded by Musk in 2002 to normalise
interplanetary travel, has in recent months shifted its focus from
manufacturing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of those already built,
investing heavily in infrastructure for refurbishing boosters under speedy
timelines.
The company has applied the same strategy to its fleet of
reusable Crew Dragons - gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that launch atop the Falcon 9
and ferry humans to orbit and the International Space Station.
SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites to space quicker
than its rivals in the satellite internet race, such as satellite operator
OneWeb, due in part to Falcon 9's rapid reusability and the edge associated
with using in-house rockets.
OneWeb, which is nearing completion of an internet
constellation with fewer satellites, has launched its satellites on Russia's
Soyuz rocket. The company this year plans to use the Falcon 9 after canceling
its Soyuz contract over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. © Reuters
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