
SpaceX achieved a remarkable milestone on Tuesday (October 15) by successfully launching its 100th rocket of the year.
This feat was accomplished with a doubleheader launch, where two Falcon 9 rockets were launched on the different coasts of the United States, successfully delivering 43 Starlink internet satellites into orbit in total.
Although SpaceX has been facing many obstacles, suffering an anomaly of losing one grounded Falcon 9 rocket out of the three it launched. However, SpaceX quickly solved each problem and returned to flight.
SpaceX 100th launch
With the 100th launch of the year 2024 that had on board 23 Starlink satellites, Space X launched at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida at 2:10am EDT (0610 GMT) on a Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) with a booster landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” stationed off the coast of Florida.
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Just two hours after the early morning launch, SpaceX launched its 101st rocket of 2024. The vehicle lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base located in California and carried 20 more Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made a successful return to the surface of the Earth.
SpaceX Falcon 9 missions
On October 11, SpaceX was approved to launch the Falcon 9 missions. The company had previously been grounded due to issues with the upper stage of the Crew-9 astronaut mission. SpaceX has now demonstrated that it can quickly fix an issue and return to operations.
SpaceX has already broken its record of 98 missions in a year achieved in the year 2023. With 101 launches so far, it has managed to stay the number one launch agency in the world for this year. The next country in second position is China, which has managed to conduct 47 missions.
2024 has also seen Falcon 9 rockets account for 96 of the 101 launches operated by SpaceX. Two-thirds of these missions have been used building the Starlink mega constellation. SpaceX also operated two Falcon Heavy missions and three Starship test flights this year.