SpaceX has launched the world’s most successful rocket

It’s too early to mention retirement, but astute observers of the space industry have noticed that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket isn’t launching as often as it used to.

The decline is so far small, and it does not indicate any problem at SpaceX or with the Falcon 9. Rather, it shows the willingness of SpaceX to move to the largest rocket Starship, which allows what the company wants to do in space: missions the world on the Moon and Mars, orbital data centersis the next version of Starlink.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX conducted 165 flights with the Falcon 9 rocket (no Falcon Heavy missions) last year, from 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2024 and 96 Falcon flights in 2023. Gwynne Shotwell he told Time earlier this year. “This year we will still install more, but not too much,” he said. “Then we will leave our launchers as Starship is coming online.”

Gas removal

We’re starting to see what the long, slow length looks like. These changes are most visible in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where SpaceX has installed the lion’s share of its rockets. Until last December, SpaceX launched Falcon 9s regularly from two pads on Florida’s Space Coast.-one at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and another a few miles south at the military base at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

SpaceX is modifying the Kennedy site, called Launch Complex-39A, to launch Starships. The LC-39A has been phased out for the Falcon 9 launch, although it remains available from time to time for the three-strong Falcon Heavy. SpaceX launched the first Falcon Heavy in a year and a half last week from the LC-39A, and more Falcon Heavy flights are on tap later this year.

Events at SpaceX’s oldest launch site, Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral, are also slowing down. Last month, SpaceX retired one of its two Florida ocean landing platforms for future use as a carrier to transport Starship and Super Heavy boosters from SpaceX’s South Texas factory to Florida. SpaceX is building a second Starship factory at the Kennedy Space Center, but officials want to launch Starship flights from Florida before the factory is operational.