2024 Rocket Launches in Review

2 days ago

In October 2023, Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, shared an ambitious target: 144 launches in 2024.

The company fell slightly short of this goal, completing 133 successful launches.

The 2024 launch total includes 2 Falcon Heavy launches but excludes Starship missions, as the program remains experimental. Despite missing the target, the numbers show remarkable growth compared to SpaceX’s 61 launches in 2022 and 95 launches in 2023.

Global Context: Comparing Launch Totals

Launches per Rocket Family.png

SpaceX continues to dominate global launch statistics, outperforming other space programs and commercial operators. Below is a table summarizing launches across different rocket families and programs over the years:

Year	Falcon 9	Long March	R-7	Electron	PSLV
2010	2	15	13	0	1
2011	0	19	19	0	3
2012	2	19	14	0	2
2013	3	14	16	0	3
2014	6	15	21	0	3
2015	7	19	17	0	4
2016	28	22	14	0	6
2017	17	16	15	1	3
2018	21	37	16	3	4
2019	13	26	18	6	5
2020	25	34	15	7	2
2021	31	48	22	6	1
2022	61	53	19	9	3
2023	95	47	17	8	3
2024	133	49	12	15	3

Starlink's Role in SpaceX's Growth

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, has become a major driver of the company’s launch cadence. In 2024, 86 of the 133 Falcon 9 launches were for Starlink, representing 65% of total launches.

Year	# Falcon 9 Launches	# Launches for Starlink	% Starlink
2019	13	2	15%
2020	25	14	56%
2021	31	17	55%
2022	61	34	56%
2023	95	62	65%
2024	133	86	65%

Outlook 2025

At this point, I am not aware of a new ambitious target for 2025. Elon might announce a target at a later date or he is simply too focused on increasing the cadence of Starship. The Falcon 9 program might have achieved a level that is sufficient for SpaceX's customers and for building out and maintaining Starlink - until Starship is operational.