Musk's space exploration technology company SpaceX broke the previous annual record for orbital rocket launches, successfully completing 96 launch missions in 2023, with an average launch rate of one every four days. This year, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket achieved 91 launches, and the Falcon Heavy rocket also achieved 5 launches, exceeding the previous annual record of 61 orbital rocket launches set in 2022. It’s worth mentioning that there have been more Falcon 9 launches this year than in the entire decade since the rocket’s debut.
Among its many achievements in 2023, SpaceX also successfully landed its 250th orbital rocket booster and achieved 19 launches and landings of a single rocket, continuing to push the limits of rocket reuse. This week, SpaceX also set a new record for the company’s shortest time between orbital launches, taking just under three hours, the shortest time between launches in Florida since NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966.
In addition, SpaceX's launch count this year does not include two Starship test flights, because these flights did not carry commercial payloads into orbit.
Jon Edwards, SpaceX's vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, wrote on social media that Musk proposed the "100 launches per year" goal a few years ago, which was just a thought experiment at the time. "Now we've done it. I'm extremely proud to work with the best team on the planet and excited to see what we can accomplish next year."
SpaceX has said it aims to launch as many as 144 Falcon missions in 2024 as it continues to deploy satellites for the Starlink system, a major part of what drives its $180 billion valuation.