2022 was a record year for space with 180 successful rocket launches into orbit – the most on record and 44 more than in 2021. Launches were dominated by rockets from the US company SpaceX and from the Chinese government and enterprises.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who maintains space flight databases and published his analysis of launches in 2022 this month says “Space traffic is increasing, pun intended”.
Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has sent one of its Falcon rockets into orbit on average every six days all year. Its total of 61 successful launches is tied with the record set in 1980 by Soviet R-7 missiles.
Most of SpaceX’s launches have carried commercial payloads, including its own Starlink network of communications satellites. There are now more than 3,300 operational Starlinks, by far the largest satellite constellation ever (see ‘Orbital Operations’). Growing congestion in space means that between the end of 2020 and the end of 2022, SpaceX had to move its Starlinks out of the way more than 26,000 times to avoid collisions.
According to McDowell’s analysis, in addition to SpaceX, other US rocket providers also made 17 launches in 2022. They included the November launch of NASA’s new heavy launch vehicle, the Space Launch System, which is expected to carry astronauts to the moon in the coming years.
China has made 62 successful launches, 9 more than in 2021 ( “The Space Race”). Many were government launches, but a rapidly growing portion belong to commercial rocket providers. Overall, China’s launch rate in 2022 was nearly three times that of Russia. McDowell said “China is replacing Russia as the number two space power”.
In October, China launched its solar observatory, dubbed Kuafu-1. It also launched the third and final main module of its Tiangong orbital space station, which is now complete.
Other science launches this year included NASA’s surface water and ocean topography mapping satellite, Japan’s ispace private lunar lander and South Korea’s first mission to the moon.
The total number of launches in Europe dropped from 15 successful launches in 2021 to just 5 last year. The European Space Agency halted the launch of Russian Soyuz rockets after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In contrast, New Zealand made a record nine starts in 2022. American company Rocket Lab launches commercial payload into orbit from Mahia, New Zealand.
The coming year could break more records than the last. SpaceX has said it hopes to launch 100 times by 2023 — missions that will include the first orbital flight of its massive Starship vehicle, which is intended to eventually carry humans to the moon and Mars.
The total number of launches in Europe dropped from 15 successful launches in 2021 to just 5 last year. The European Space Agency halted the launch of Russian Soyuz rockets after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In contrast, New Zealand made a record nine starts in 2022. American company Rocket Lab launches commercial payload into orbit from Mahia, New Zealand.
The coming year could break more records than the last. SpaceX has said it hopes to launch 100 times by 2023 — missions that will include the first orbital flight of its massive Starship vehicle, which is intended to eventually carry humans to the moon and Mars.
Reference :https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00048-7
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