With only a few global launches left before 2021 and the SpaceX launch in December last year, it is now safe to say that the Falcon 9 has officially ended the year as the most launched rocket in 2020 in the world.
On December 19, the Falcon 9 Booster B1059 took off for the fourth time, carrying a US secret spy satellite to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and marking the 26th successful launch of SpaceX and the 23rd landing since 2020. – an annual launch frequency exactly weekly. With the exception of several surprise launches, Falcon 9 will end the year as the world’s most launched rocket and – by far the most reliable rocket in the world, preparing SpaceX for an unprecedented 2021 potential.
Perhaps thanks to Starlink and any unknown hardware, software and operational improvements, SpaceX broke its previous annual launch record – 21 flights, set in 2018 – by almost 25%. In 2020, Starlink missions accounted for more than half of the 26 launches of Falcon 9, placing nearly 840 operational satellites in orbit over 14 flights.
Thanks to the record performance of the Falcon 9, in a single year, Starlink became the largest satellite constellation in the world with at least a factor of three to four, if not five or more.
Following SpaceX’s NROL-108 mission, two or three more international launches are likely to be planned between now and 2021. In total, the world’s launch launches are on track to successfully complete around 103 launches, of which nearly a quarter only Falcon 9 can be credited. No other single missile came close: the Russian R-7 family (Soyuz 2.1) managed 14 successful flights, while five quite distinct variants of China’s long-range missiles 2, 3 and 4 have completed 24 launches in 2020.
Overall, China is on track to complete 38 orbital launch attempts (of which 33-34 were successful) by 2020, either narrowly limiting or tying the US (37 attempts; 34 successes). *
* Data collected from Ed Kyle’s wonderful diligent launch logs
Perhaps most importantly, largely due to a steady stream of reusable Falcon 9 premises, SpaceX seems to be on track to smash its impressive launch record in 2020 to 2021. Checking the first fourth, fifth, and sixth reuses of Falcon 9 reuses, In addition to the first flight of a payload fairing for the third time, there is little doubt that SpaceX will be able to reach (and probably exceed) a 10-flight target set for each Falcon booster in 2018.
In the last three months of 2020, SpaceX has made 10 impressive orbital launches, including important missions such as the operational debut of the Crew Dragon astronaut launch, the first flight of an upgraded Cargo Dragon spacecraft, and the first launch of Falcon 9 on the West Coast in about 18 months.
Finally, by completing nearly 40% of its annual launches in a single quarter, SpaceX has proven that an annual cadence of over 40 launches – and CEO Elon Musk’s stated goal of 48 flights – is good handy next year.