SpaceX shares animation showing just how much its launch cadence has increased

After Monday’s doubleheader of launches, SpaceX shared a graphic showing the company’s launches since the first Falcon 1 in 2008. The graphic gives us a great way to visualize how far the company has come.

A year to do the unthinkable

This year SpaceX plans to launch 100 rockets, a new record for the company. In 2022, SpaceX managed to do 61 launches of its Falcon rocket, doubling the company’s 2021 launch total. Hitting triple digits would be a crazy moment for the commercial space industry if completed.

For SpaceX to do so, it would have to launch once every 3.65 days (yes, I did the math). If you’ve been following our lovely SpaceX launch tracker, you’ll know the company’s current rate is one launch every 4.08 days. So they’re doing pretty well to hit that 100 launch goal.

What a time to be alive

I only came onto the spaceflight scene after SpaceX made its milestone first launch, first landing, and development of Falcon Heavy (my first launch). However, I think I’ve had the chance to join the scene at an even more exciting time, the ramp-up of regular launches for both satellites and crew.

As visualized greatly in SpaceX’s new graphic, we have seen a significant uptick in launches, and the graphic only shows one company. Rocket Lab is working on its first double-digit year, multiple other new companies are coming on the scene, and then, of course, SpaceX.

SpaceX has launched 41 rockets so far this year, including Starship. All of the company’s Falcon launches had successful landings if attempted, and there have been several doubleheaders like Monday and back-to-back launch days – something that was only the imagination of the biggest SpaceX fans and industry analysts when I came onto the scene in 2018.