WASHINGTON — The world set another record for orbital launches in 2024 in a continuing surge of launch activity driven almost entirely by SpaceX.
There were 259 orbital launch attempts in 2024, a 17% increase from the previous record of 221 orbital launch attempts in 2023, based on SpaceNews analysis of open source records. That figure does not include suborbital launches, such as four SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy test flights or two launches of the HASTE suborbital variant of Rocket Lab’s Electron.
That increase in overall launches matches the increase by SpaceX alone, which performed 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2024, up from 96 in 2023. The company performed more orbital launches than the rest of the world combined.
SpaceX accounted for 88 of 93 launches from the Eastern Range in Florida, which includes Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center, and 46 of 47 launches from the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Other U.S. entities performed just 20 orbital launches in 2024, counting 13 Electron launches from New Zealand’s Launch Complex 1 by U.S.-headquartered Rocket Lab.
China performed 68 launches in 2024, breaking a record of 67 launches set in 2023. Russia performed 17 launches, followed by Japan (7), India (5), Iran (4), Europe (3) and North Korea (1).
The 259 orbital launches included six failures. Kairos, a small launch vehicle from Japanese venture Space One, failed in its first two launches in March and December. Two Chinese commercial launch vehicles, a Hyperbola-1 and Lijian-1, suffered failures in July and December, respectively, as did the sole North Korean launch. A Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites in July reached orbit, but the upper stage malfunctioned during a relight of the engine to circularize the orbit, resulting in the satellites deployed in orbits too low to survive.
While SpaceX sharply increased its launch cadence in 2024, the company still fell short of its internal goal. The company entered the year seeking to launch 148 Falcon rockets, including four launches the company carried over from 2023, when it just missed a goal of 100 launches. In December, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said the company had a new goal of 136 launches for 2024.
Shotwell said at a Dec. 17 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event that the company was planning 175 to 180 Falcon launches in 2025, pushing to increase launch rates to fight complacency. “We just keep pushing the limits,” she said. “That’s how you stay in fighting weight.”
SpaceX will also be ramping up Starship launches, including the first truly orbital missions, in 2025. That vehicle, SpaceX hopes, will ultimately have a much higher launch rate than even Falcon.
“Elon [Musk] is like, ‘I want to launch 1,000 times a year,’” Shotwell said at the CSIS event. “We’ve got to figure that out, but that will be Starship, not Falcon.”