Falcon 9 Successfully Completes 61st Mission, Tying Historic Soviet Record
SpaceX has marked a remarkable milestone, completing its 61st rocket launch of 2022, nearly doubling its previous annual record. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California early Friday morning, successfully deploying a commercial imaging satellite from Israel into orbit.
The EROS C3 satellite, weighing 400kg and developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), is designed to capture Earth images with a resolution of 30cm. This launch surpassed founder and CEO Elon Musk’s ambitious target of 60 successful missions, set in March, and significantly exceeded the previous record of 31 launches achieved in 2021.
Notably, this achievement ties SpaceX with a 42-year-old record established by the Soviet Union, when the R-7 rocket accomplished 61 successful launches out of 64 attempts. The majority of SpaceX’s launches this year were carried out by the Falcon 9, with only one mission conducted using a Super Heavy rocket.
Looking ahead, SpaceX aims to break this record in 2023, with plans to ramp up the frequency of its Starlink missions, which provide high-speed internet globally via satellite. Starlink missions alone accounted for 34 of the 61 launches in 2022.
The first launch of 2023 is scheduled for January 2, when a Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, weather permitting. Musk has set an ambitious target of 100 launches for the coming year, with contracts from clients including the UK’s OneWeb and the US space agency NASA.
