Photo: SpaceX (via Elon Musk)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared on Monday the company’s Falcon rocket team is “making excellent progress” in 2022, and is now aiming for 60 launches in 2022.
Back in January, it was revealed SpaceX was planning on targeting 52 launches this year, which would be a launch cadence of one per week. Musk’s further details today would be increasing that number higher to 60 for 2022.
When asked if SpaceX could hit 69 launches, Musk replied to say, “haha that’s next year,” only to follow up to add, “maybe this year isn’t out of the question.”
Maybe this year isn’t out of the question …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2022
Later, Musk also detailed a Starlink team update, noting the team is “expecting over 4,200 Starlink satellites in operation within 18 months.” Musk says this would equate to roughly two-thirds “of all active satellites of Earth.”
Currently, there are over 2,000 active Starlink satellites in operation, so this would be a doubling of the existing constellation within an 18-month timeframe.
Starlink 🛰 team too! Expecting over 4200 Starlink satellites in operation within 18 months, which is ~2/3 of all active satellites of Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2022
Currently, there are apparently over 5,000 Starlink terminals sent to Ukraine by SpaceX, assisting the latter to stay online amid an invasion by Russia.
SpaceX recently increased the price of its Starlink hardware and monthly service, citing inflation, while the company’s rocket launch prices similarly increased as well.
The next Falcon 9 launch is expected for Friday, April 1, for the Transporter 4 mission, a dedicated rideshare flight to sun-synchronous orbit, for dozens of small micro and nanosatellites for both commercial and government customers. The launch is set to take place at Cape Canaveral, Florida, from Space Launch Complex 40.
