SpaceX just broke its annual launch record — and it’s only July

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images

The company broke its own record for orbital launches conducted in a single year by launching its 32nd Falcon 9 mission. There are still a lot of years left to push that record higher.

There has been a steady increase in the launch cadence of the company over the years. The company pulled off 31 launches in the year, which was the most it had ever done.

The company set a goal of 52 missions over the course of the year. That number was revealed by a NASA safety advisory panel in January, with a word of caution that the company should try to maintain safety. Sandy Magnus, a former NASA Astronaut and member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said during the January meeting that NASA and SpaceX will have to be careful not to be victims of their success during the years to come.

This year has seen nothing but seamless missions for the company. The planned launch on Thursday was aborted less than a minute before take off, which is ironic since the mission was supposed to launch on Thursday. It was the first time in a long time that a technical issue hasn't led to a cut-off for the company. The company was able to get up and running after a long time.

A key factor that allows for such a busy launch schedule is that, in a majority of the launches this year, the company is serving as its own customer. In order to flesh out its massive internet-from-space Starlink constellation, the company is using these launches to loft batches of up to 53 satellites at a time. The additional 46 Starlink satellites were put up today. There are approximately 2,600 Starlink satellites in the sky.

Without the Starlink launch, the company has had a lot of other missions. The International Space Station is occasionally visited by the Dragon capsule, which carries cargo and people. The company has a number of Transporter missions in which various small satellites are packed together and deployed. On top of that, there are commercial customers and launches for the defense department.

The majority of the Falcon 9 rockets that have been launched this year have been vehicles that have flown before. The Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 is the only one of its kind. The 125th overall landing of the company's Falcon 9 rocket was achieved today.

The company is moving forward now that it has beaten its record. On July 24th, out of Florida, there will be another mission to launch more Starlink satellites.