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](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bluerobo/23tmmqGJim4xd8FEKes7SaQo5RMsKat3m52HZ6YJqCSWwxsxQoh8oGaSf83BjEtrPrYPe.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.


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Data Sources:
Jonathan C. McDowell: [Launch List by Family]( https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/web/launch/ldir.html)
Wikipedia: [List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches (2010–2019)](  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches_(2010%E2%80%932019))
Wikipedia: [List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches)
Wikipedia: [List of Long March launches (2010–2019)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Long_March_launches_(2010%E2%80%932019))
Wikipedia: [List of Long March launches (2020–2029)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Long_March_launches_(2020%E2%80%932029))
Wikipedia: [List of R-7 launches (2010–2014)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_R-7_launches_(2010%E2%80%932014))
Wikipedia: [List of R-7 launches (2015–2019)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_R-7_launches_(2015%E2%80%932019))
Wikipedia: [List of R-7 launches (2020–2024)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_R-7_launches_(2020%E2%80%932024))
Wikipedia: [List of Electron launches]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Electron_launches) 
Wikipedia: [List of PSLV launches]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PSLV_launches)
Wikipedia: [Comparison of orbital launcher families]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launcher_families)



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