(Paris) The United States, thanks to SpaceX, has once again crushed the global market for space launchers, carrying out 107 orbital flights in 2023, far ahead of other countries in this strategic sector.
Alone, Elon Musk’s firm launched its Falcon 9 on 96 occasions during the year, almost at the rate of two per week, mainly to continue the deployment of its Starlink internet satellite constellation.
Space Falcon Heavyplacing the X-37B military space drone into orbit, and carried out two tests, which ended in explosions, of its super heavy launcher Starship. This must be used to land astronauts again on the Moon during the Artemis missions.
“For next year, we want to increase the number of flights to approximately 12 flights per month, or 144 flights,” SpaceX Vice President Bill Gerstenmaier said during a hearing before the US Senate in October.
Faced with American domination, China is rapidly developing its space activity and has carried out 67 launches in 2023, compared to 64 in 2022, according to Spacenews.
For its last launch of the year on Friday, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Society (CASC) indicated on its website that it had carried out 47 launches for its Long March rocket range alone in 2023.
Russia fired its rocket 19 times, including 17 times Soyuzmainly satellites for its government and military needs as well as vessels Progress bound for the International Space Station (ISS), according to the specialist site Gunter’s Space Page.
The rocket Electron from the American-New Zealand company Rocket Lab, one of the rare operational mini-launchers, was fired nine times.
Behind comes India, whose space agency Isro carried out seven launches during the year of its GSLV, PSLV and SSLV rockets.
Isro can also boast of having carried out the first launch of 2024, a PSLV rocket launched on Monday at 11:30 p.m. (Eastern time) having put a scientific satellite into orbit.
Europe, in the midst of a launcher crisis, has only carried out three shots in 2023: the last two Ariane 5 and a rocket Vega.
Europeans hope to regain autonomous access to space with the inaugural flight ofAriane 6scheduled between June 15 and the end of July, and the return flight of Vega-C at the end of the year, after an accident which has left her grounded since the end of 2022.
Japan also carried out three launches in 2023, including a failure for its new H-3 heavy launcher. The Japanese space agency, Jaxa, announced Thursday a new attempt for February 15.