SpaceX begins 2024 with several record-breaking feats

SpaceX has kicked off 2024 breaking records and setting new standards for its operations. The Falcon family of rockets achieved 31 launches in the first quarter of the year putting the company on track to complete 125 launches by the end of 2024. SpaceX also debuted a new crew access tower for Dragon and launched two more crew flights to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket also completed its third flight, reaching space once again, and successfully completing its ascent burn for the first time. In the first quarter of 2024, the company’s Starlink constellation also saw another growth of customers and satellites launched into space. 

Over the next few months, the company is aiming to increase its activity even further with more Falcon and Starship launches and debuting new types of missions and trajectories as well.

Falcon and Dragon Programs

While SpaceX’s launch cadence was increased substantially in 2023, the company has a stated goal of launching 148 times in 2024. This translates into a 50 percent increase in launch cadence needed to achieve this goal which would average more than 12 launches per month. 

In the first quarter of 2024, SpaceX completed 31 Falcon 9 missions which would put the company on track to complete 125 launches by the end of the year. While this is about 20 launches short of the stated goal, in recent years the company has been continually increasing its cadence, translating into this cadence being higher during the second half of every year.

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To put SpaceX’s current cadence into perspective, the company has achieved the same number of launches in the first three months of 2024 as it did in all of 2021. During those months, SpaceX teams were able to break turnaround time records on all three Falcon-capable launchpads. 

Previous record New record
Space Launch Complex 40 3d 21h 41min 3d 17h 24min
Launch Complex 39A 8d 19h 20min 6d 18h 43min
Space Launch Complex 4E 6d 13h 44min 40s 5d  5h 22min 20s

Table comparing previous record turnaround times and new record turnaround times on each launchpad as of March 31, 2024

The use of Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) also increased in the first months of 2024. In the last couple of years, the complex has been used less often compared to SpaceX’s other two launch pads and was mostly utilized as the main launching point for Dragon spacecraft and Falcon Heavy missions. With the activation of a new crew access tower at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in February, SpaceX opted to launch the CRS-30 Dragon mission from that launchpad. 

In March 2024, LC-39A supported four missions to take up the load of launches that would have otherwise gone from SLC-40. This marked the most launches performed from LC-39A in any calendar month to date. 

While Space Launch Complex 4E has also seen record turnaround times, the cadence from SpaceX’s west coast launch facilities has substantially dragged behind what the company had hoped to achieve. This lower-than-desired launch cadence comes as a result of the unusually bad weather conditions during several launch attempts made in the first months of the year. 

A similar situation occurred during early 2023 when multiple launches from Vandenberg were repeatedly delayed due to weather conditions. These delays could probably account for the four launches that SpaceX was short of its target last year and a similar situation could happen this year as well.

While SpaceX’s goal of achieving 148 launches in 2024 may be a tough challenge, the company did achieve twelve Falcon 9 launches in a single month in March 2024. This is the number of launches that the company would have to have every month during 2024 if it wants to come close to its year-end goal. 

With 31 launches complete in the first quarter of 2024, SpaceX will need to ramp up its cadence to an average of 13 launches per month. This will require it to demonstrate during certain months that it can do 14 launches in order to compensate for potential shortfalls in cadence during other times of the year. 

To support SpaceX’s record-breaking cadence, the company’s recovery assets also had to break a variety of turnaround records. These recovery assets consist mainly of three droneships and three fairing recovery vessels, two of each on the east coast, and the third of each located on the west coast. 

On the west coast, SpaceX’s droneship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) broke the record for the shortest time between supporting two missions for any droneship earlier in the year. However, this record was broken in late March by SpaceX’s droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG). 

This record was more complicated to achieve as the distance between the landing zone and Port Canaveral is larger than the distance between the landing zone for Starlink Group 7 missions from Vandenberg and Port of Long Beach where OCISLY returns boosters to. 

This record turnaround time for ASOG was achieved thanks to a powerful tug named Signet Warhorse III. This tug was able to pull ASOG at an average speed of 7 knots, reaching peak speeds of 11 knots during the trip back to port. This allowed the two vessels to complete the travel from the landing zone back to Port Canaveral in just 50 hours.

If SpaceX can keep its recovery assets at this pace and starts achieving a faster cadence from its west coast launch pad, it may not be that unrealistic for the company to achieve 13 or 14 launches in a month at some point in the next few months. 

Another crucial part of the drive to increase cadence is the fleet of Falcon 9 boosters that support SpaceX’s missions. During the first quarter of the year, two new boosters — B1082 and B1083 — were introduced into the fleet. B1082 is now part of the regular rotation of boosters on the west coast while B1083 debuted on the Crew-8 mission from the east coast. 

Three boosters, B1060, B1061, and B1062 have now reached 19 flights, the record number of flights for any Falcon 9 boosters. SpaceX is currently in the process of extending the number of certified reuses beyond 20. However, it is expected some of the oldest boosters will be expended and therefore retired in favor of letting newer boosters fly beyond that mark. 

SpaceX’s Falcon booster fleet currently consists of 16 active boosters and two Falcon Heavy side boosters which are awaiting their launch later this year. During the first three months of 2024, all 16 active boosters flew at least once, 12 of these flew at least twice, and two of them flew three times. 

SpaceX also runs its fleet of fairing halves but the company rarely releases any detailed info on the serial numbers of its fairings or the flights they supported previously. The company does mention from time to time a few major milestones or events of note regarding fairing recovery and reuse such as SpaceX’s recent comment on the fastest turnaround of a pair of fairing halves to date.

The faster launch cadence allows SpaceX to support more missions for customers and also for Starlink. In 2023 the company launched 63 Starlink missions and 33 customer missions, representing approximately two-thirds and one-third of all missions launched on Falcon, respectively. During the first three months of 2024, this same ratio is still present with 20 Starlink missions and 11 customer missions flown. 

These customer missions involved the first launch of a Cygnus spacecraft on Falcon 9. For this type of mission, SpaceX developed a special hatch on the fairing of the rocket that allows ground crews to introduce late-load cargo on Cygnus. 

Additionally, SpaceX launched the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander that eventually became the first commercially developed lander to land on the Moon. For that mission, SpaceX installed a set of ground systems at Launch Complex 39A to be able to load liquid methane and liquid oxygen on Nova-C during the Falcon 9’s countdown sequence.

Other customer missions include NASA’s PACE spacecraft which was the first NASA mission in more than 60 years that launched from Florida and was inserted into a polar orbit. 

Two crew flights to the International Space Station, Axiom-3 and Crew-8, also took place in the first quarter of the year followed shortly by the return of the Crew-7 mission from the orbiting laboratory. Crew-8 is being supported by Crew Dragon Endeavour flying on its fifth flight becoming the first Dragon capsule to reach this milestone. 

In 2023, SpaceX began the construction of a new crew access tower at SLC-40 and, in the early months of 2024, this work was completed. This included installing the emergency egress system at the pad which consists of a set of slide chutes on the side of the tower. The emergency egress system would be used by astronauts and ground crews in the unlikely event of an emergency on the pad prior to the activation of the launch escape system on Crew Dragon. 

This access tower was used for the first time operationally on the CRS-30 mission, the first Dragon 2 mission from SLC-40, and the first Dragon flight from this pad overall since 2020. The first crew flight from this location is currently not officially determined, but SpaceX and NASA are discussing the possibility of flying Dragon’s next crew rotation mission, Crew-9, from SLC-40. 

References to third-party companies, products, services, or projects are for informational purposes only and do not imply endorsement, affiliation, or partnership unless explicitly stated.

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