Less than three days after SpaceX successfully completed the launch of its 20th Falcon 9 in 2021, a small Long March 2D rocket took China to make 20 of the same flights.
With the exception of SpaceX and China, the rest of the world combined completed its 20th orbit launch before SpaceX when the Virgin Orbit Launcher One rocket went into service in the United States for the second time. In simpler terms, for any other country, space agency, or company, SpaceX has led the world in orbital launches for the first half of 2021 — the first time in history that a single company has achieved this feat.
Perhaps most importantly, as CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly noted over the past few months, the total mass launched into orbit is a more valuable measure of success, and in this regard, SpaceX leads the rest of the world combined. In the first half of 2021, SpaceX successfully launched more than 230 metric tons (about 500,000 pounds) of spacecraft, dragons, space station cargo, and astronauts into orbit and boosted the Internet constellation Starlink with nearly 800 satellites.
Falcon 9 is always at full capacity. When it has “backup” performance, it flies to the ground, which costs a lot less than using a drone.
Our basic constraint is mass in orbit per unit time. Last year, SpaceX launched a payload block that nearly doubled for the rest of the world.
– Elon Musk March 11, 2021
As of July 3, the rest of the world combined—including China, Russia, India and three other suppliers to the United States—had released about 175 tons (385,000 pounds) into orbit in 2021. According to Musk, SpaceX has effectively doubled the mass of the remaining payload. globally into orbit in 2020, which means other launch providers – led mostly by China – will be more competitive in 2021, although they will still launch about 25% less mass than SpaceX.
In terms of dedicated launch vehicles, SpaceX also maintains an almost unbeatable lead with the Falcon 9. Only Russia has vaguely come close to 11 successful Soyuz 2.1 launches so far, followed by China’s Long March 4 with 7 flights this year.
However, on July 1, Russia’s Soyuz 2.1 rocket launched OneWeb’s eighth batch of Internet Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, propelling the entire non-Chinese/SpaceX world to 21 successful launches by 2021. A successful orbital mission but a country set to take off again – this time with a weather satellite – July 4th at the earliest. Given China’s ambitious statements, SpaceX likely won’t catch up before late 2021, but the company’s sole and giant reusable Falcon 9 rocket is still on track for 40 (or more) launches this year alone.
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