Elon Musk's SpaceX Hits 2023 Launch Target Ahead Of Schedule After Falcon 9 Blasts Off With Starlink Satellites

Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company, SpaceX, has successfully completed its 90th flight for 2023, surpassing the CEO’s launch target for the year ahead of schedule.

As part of this milestone mission, a Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida at 12:07 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Elon Musk shared several pictures from the launch on X, stating, “90th flight of 2023.”

SpaceX Nears Yearly Goals: Elon Musk had set ambitious targets earlier in March when he celebrated the company’s 20th launch of the year, stating on X, “20 launches done, 70+ for the rest of the year,” indicating an expected total of over 90 launches. SpaceX completed 26 launches in 2020, 31 in 2021, and nearly doubled that to 61 last year.

On Wednesday, Musk highlighted that SpaceX is on track to launch over 80% of all Earth’s payloads into orbit this year, a goal announced in March. By the end of the third quarter, SpaceX had already launched over 800,000 kgs into orbit, significantly surpassing China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which sent just over 70,000 kgs.

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