Old Record Of 20 Was Set In November 2024

Commercial spaceflight continues its ascendancy with a new record of 21 launches in June, breaking the previous record of 20 set in November 2024. SpaceX eclipsed all other launch services by far with 15 of the flights, not counting the suborbital test flights of its Starship heavy launch vehicle.

The other three commercial operators are Blue Origin (1), Rocket Lab (4), and United Launch Alliance (1).

The FAA said in an email statement, "Operations during the record month include 21 launches conducted by four operators: Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. These occurred in California, Florida, Texas and New Zealand, and involved orbital, suborbital and commercial human spaceflight missions.”

California-based Rocket Lab's primary launch site is on New Zealand's North Island.

Fifteen of SpaceX’s 21 missions were dedicated to the build-out of the company’s Starlink broadband constellation. The company has so far launched 81 missions this year, on pace to break its single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs, set in 2024.

SpaceX and Blue Origin conducted human spaceflights in June, with SpaceX’s Ax-4 sending Sierra Space astronauts to the ISS. Blue Origin launched its 13th human spaceflight and 33rd overall with six aboard its New Shepard rocket on a suborbital flight lasting about 10 ½ minutes.

United Launch Alliance’s single mission was to deploy the second batch of Project Kuiper satellites to orbit. These are Amazon’s low Earth orbit constellation, which when complete with 3,200 satellites, will provide world-wide connectivity including ships at sea.

Launches conducted by Rocket Lab included one confidential payload, a “Mountain God Guards” mission for a Japanese company, the “Full Steam Ahead” mission for BlackSky, and a mission for geospatial analytics company HawkEye 360.

FMI:  www.faa.gov/