APOGEE STAFF
Nations with space capabilities are poised to launch more civilian and military payloads into orbit than ever before in the coming years. While launches have risen steadily in number since the dawn of the Space Age in 1957, the volume of objects launched has grown exponentially since 2017 as payloads aboard each rocket increase.
Leading the way are SpaceX’s Starlink global internet satellite constellations, shot dozens at a time into low Earth orbit from Florida and California. Overall, said founder Elon Musk, SpaceX was tracking to launch more than 80 percent of all Earth payload to orbit in 2023. At Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — along with NASA’s adjacent Kennedy Space Center, the busiest spaceport in the world — the annual number of launches has grown from just three or four per year a decade ago to more than 80 in 2023. Soon, it may reach as many as 300 a year, the Space Force has projected. Contributing to the pace in coming years will be U.S. military satellites, including the layers of the planned National Defense Space Architecture and the quick-turnaround launch missions known as Tactically Responsive Space.
According to an index maintained by the United Nations, the U.S. far outpaces the rest of the world in objects launched into space, totaling 2,006 for the year through December 11, 2023. Second on the U.N. list with 143 was the United Kingdom and its Eutelsat OneWeb internet constellations, followed at No. 3 by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with 120. The PRC issued a five-year space plan in January 2022, describing its own satellite constellations and declaring it will “improve the capacity and performance of its space transport system, and move faster to upgrade launch vehicles.” The U.S., U.K. and PRC will have plenty of company in space: More than 45 nations now have space programs, according to the website of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs.
