In just one year, SpaceX launched 60 rockets, ushering in a new era of commercial space travel.
While his time at Twitter may have been chaotic and unpredictable, his focus on SpaceX and space travel was unmistakable. As SpaceX grew to be the industry leader in satellite launch services, Musk set a goal for the company in 2021 of performing one launch every week.
And SpaceX has accomplished this. The aerospace corporation started a new era in commercial space exploration by conducting 60 launches in only one calendar year. SpaceX carried satellites, military equipment, the Starlink constellation, and lunar missions into deep space in 2022 while riding high on its workhorse, the Falcon-9.
The SpaceX Falcon team deserves congratulations on 60 successful launches this year. Musk stated as SpaceX launched the 54 Starlink satellites from its most recent batch into low-Earth orbit. One of the largest missions to have ever departed Earth, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, was also launched by the corporation from Space Launch Complex 4 to low-Earth orbit.
SWOT is a worldwide initiative to survey the world’s surface water for the first time. It seeks to advance the information that people rely on for managing freshwater resources and offer a fresh perspective on the ocean’s contribution to climate change.
In order to demonstrate its capabilities of transporting passengers and cargo into zero gravity, SpaceX also transported astronauts to the International Space Station and safely returned them after the conclusion of their six-month mission.
Despite the fact that the business launched 60 times in 2022, its biggest launch, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which successfully smashed into an asteroid and redirected it, occurred in 2021. In case an asteroid threatening Earth is found in the future, DART was humanity’s first planetary defence test mission to see if deliberately crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is a successful approach to redirect its trajectory. It was the first interplanetary mission for SpaceX.
PLAN FOR 2023
SpaceX’s Starship programme saw significant hurdles in 2022 when it came to interplanetary trips. During ground testing in July of this year, the Starship engine caught fire. Musk’s plans to launch the massive spacecraft’s first orbital voyage, which would have carried people and cargo to the Moon and Mars in the future, were delayed by the accident.
Now, SpaceX plans to launch Starship into orbit for the first time in 2023, along with other significant missions like the Polaris Program, a ground-breaking initiative to quickly develop human spaceflight capabilities. The programme will include up to three human spaceflight missions that will showcase cutting-edge technology, carry out in-depth research, and ultimately lead to the first human flight of SpaceX’s Starship.
With aspirations to carry people and goods to both the Moon and Earth’s orbit, the business has become the largest private contractor in the field of space exploration. As part of its revised agreement with SpaceX to advance the Starship human landing system, NASA just made the announcement. The first lunar Starship launch would carry ten crew members, including two backups, according to the announcement made by the Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa.
Also Read: The top song that came out the year you were born