The United States has once again conquered the global launch vehicle market thanks to SpaceX, carrying out 107 orbital flights in 2023, well ahead of other countries in this strategic sector.
Elon Musk's company alone launched its Falcon 9 96 times during the year, almost twice a week, largely to continue expanding its Starlink internet satellite constellation.
Space This will be used to land astronauts on the moon again during the Artemis missions.
“Next year, we want to increase the number of flights to about 12 flights per month, or 144 flights,” SpaceX Vice President Bill Gerstenmaier said during a U.S. Senate hearing in October.
Chinese moose
Facing American dominance, China is rapidly expanding its space activities, having conducted 67 launches in 2023 compared to 64 in 2022, according to Spacenews.
In its final launch of the year on Friday, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said on its website that it had conducted 47 launches for its Long March series of rockets in 2023 alone.
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The Shenzhou-17 rocket during launch on October 26, 2023.
Photo: AFP / PEDRO PARDO
According to trade site Gunter's Space Page, Russia has fired its Soyuz rocket 19 times, 17 of which were mostly satellites for its government and military needs, as well as Progress ships for the International Space Station (ISS).
The American-New Zealand company Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, one of the rare operational mini-launchers, was launched nine times.
It is followed by India, whose space agency Isro carried out seven launches of its GSLV, PSLV and SSLV rockets during the year.
Isro also boasts of having carried out the first launch of 2024: a PSLV rocket blasted off at 4:30 GMT on Monday, putting a scientific satellite into orbit.
Europe is lagging behind
Europe has carried out just three launches in 2023 amid a launch vehicle crisis: the last two Ariane 5s and a Vega rocket.
Europeans hope to regain autonomous access to the world with the first flight of Ariane 6, scheduled between June 15 and the end of July, and the resumption of flight of Vega-C at the end of the year after an accident that has since grounded it To reach space at the end of 2022.
Japan also conducted three launches in 2023, including a failure of its new H-3 heavy launch vehicle. The Japanese space agency Jaxa announced a new attempt on February 15 on Thursday.