SpaceX Will Launch 52 Space Rockets This Year

JAKARTA – Commercial aerospace company SpaceX will launch 52 space rockets during 2022. The plan was revealed at a meeting of NASA’s top agency oversight committee last week, by one of the panel’s members, Sandra Magnus.

If the target is successful, it will be the record for the most launches a company has ever undertaken in a single year period. It also broke SpaceX’s own record set last year, with a total of 31 space launches.

According to Sandra, who is also a former NASA astronaut, the 52 launch target is something ambitious. Because to be able to make it happen, SpaceX must have extraordinary speed with an average of one flight every week throughout the year.

“NASA and SpaceX must be vigilant during 2022 so that they don’t become victims of their success,” said Sandra Magnus, as quoted from The Verge.

The launch of the 52 rockets will also be filled with several missions from the United States space agency. For example, transporting NASA astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) using the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX is also currently developing a next-generation rocket system, called Starship, with the aim of landing humans on the surface of the Moon in NASA’s Artemis program.

However, not all of them will be affiliated with NASA. Many other SpaceX launches were also carried out with the government and other private parties. In fact, a proportionately more launches will take place on SpaceX’s own missions as a company.

To achieve this target, SpaceX has so far started its steps quite successfully. At least three launches have been carried out using a Falcon 9 space rocket. The use of the Falcon 9 rocket is an important part of being able to pursue the target of 52 launches this year.

SpaceX needs to be able to land its rocket boosters and recover every half of the nosecone after launch, in order to be put back into use. That way they can keep costs down to at least just under US$30 million (Rp431.9 billion) in a single launch, from a possible price of US$60 million (Rp863.7 billion) to US$90 million (Rp1.3 trillion).

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