SpaceNews: SpaceX surpasses all countries in the world in the number of launches, except China
Photo: Joe Skipper / Reuters
American SpaceX surpasses all countries in the world except China in the number of launches, says SpaceNews in the publication “SpaceX against the world”, dedicated to the prospects of the company of businessman and engineer Elon Musk.
“The Falcon 9, with its reusable first stage, is launched more often than any other rocket – 26 times in 2020 and 27 times through early December 2021. SpaceX not only launches more often than any other company, but is ahead of all countries except China, ”the publication says.
The American edition recalls that “the scale of SpaceX's competition has grown along with its ambitions.” “When the company started almost 20 years ago, it focused on launching small payloads, pitting the Falcon 1 against other small launch vehicle developers, including Russian companies marketing ICBMs,” the publication said.
The publication notes that at present, almost any company offering launch services for launching a payload into space consider themselves to be a competitor to SpaceX. “Even the small rocket industry is wary of SpaceX: although it ditched the Falcon 1 long ago, its services offer small satellites to Falcon 9 as a passing load at much lower prices than special light vehicles. Now these companies need to be explained how their more expensive launch services, compared to SpaceX, can offer a quality of service that justifies the higher price tag, ”writes SpaceNews.
The publication notes that the deployment of the global satellite broadband system Starlink has opened a “second front of global competition”, in which SpaceX is no longer competing with the American United Launch Alliance for state launches or with the European operator Arianespace for commercial contracts, but with Amazon, OneWeb and Telesat. SpaceNews notes that such competition “creates intense conflicts for companies that might be open to doing business with SpaceX as a launch customer if it did not mean supporting a company developing a rival constellation.”
“For now, these companies have found alternatives that are likely to cost more than Falcon 9. OneWeb is using [Russian-made] Soyuz rockets to launch its constellation, while Amazon’s Kuiper project will begin deploying its satellites using some of the latest Atlas V rockets, ”the publication says.
In December, the American edition 19FortyFive said that the fifth generation F-35 Lightning II fighter of Lockheed Martin (USA) survived in the fight against other Western competitors and in the future will occupy a dominant position in world military aviation.
