SALT LAKE CITY — SpaceX launched a set of Project Kuiper satellites Aug. 11 as the company approaches its projected peak in launches of that vehicle.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:35 a.m. Eastern on the KF-02 mission for Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation. The launch took place after attempts the four previous days were scrubbed because of technical issues or poor weather.
The rocket carried 24 Kuiper satellites, deployed into orbit about an hour after liftoff. The launch was the second of three under a contract between Amazon and SpaceX. That deal supplements contracts Amazon has with Arianespace, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance to deploy the bulk of its constellation of more than 3,200 satellites.
With the launch, Amazon has 102 Kuiper satellites in orbit, using two Falcon 9 rockets and two Atlas 5 vehicles. Amazon, in announcing the successful KF-02 launch, did not disclose when the next launch of Kuiper satellites would take place or which vehicle would launch them.
SpaceX has now performed 97 Falcon 9 launches so far this year. The company is on track to break the record it set last year with 134 Falcon launches.
Late last year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company had a goal of 175 to 180 launches in 2025, and company officials in public comments earlier this year projected about 170 launches. SpaceX is currently on a pace for nearly 160 launches this year.
While SpaceX has been rapidly increasing its launch rate in recent years, primarily to support deployment of its Starlink constellation, that growth may be reaching an end as it looks to move launches to its Starship vehicle still in development.
“This year and next year I anticipate will be the highest Falcon launch rates that we will see,” said Stephanie Bednarek, vice president of commercial sales at SpaceX, during a session at the Spacetide conference in Tokyo last month. She said the company was planning “north of 150” launches this year.
After that peak, she said the company would start shifting launches to Starship. She urged the industry to reconsider how they approach spacecraft development to take advantage of the performance the vehicle promises to offer.
“We encourage everyone in this room and everyone working on designing satellites to start changing how they think about launch,” she said. “You really do not need to optimize for mass and for volume any more.”
That includes, she said, designs that are simpler but heavier, as well as reducing the number of deployable elements. “Perhaps heavier satellites that are less expensive to manufacture because you’re not trying to optimize to save every dollar on launch costs.”
Falcon, she noted, remains a “great option” for customers, and she did not state how long that transition to Starship will take. “Starship will have many, many test flights,” she said, “and I anticipate we will then fly our own missions for SpaceX purposes with Starlink satellites before we fly our commercial customers.”
Starship’s last test flight was on May 27, when the Starship upper stage suffered a loss of attitude control after its ascent burn and broke up during reentry. A Starship being prepared the next flight was destroyed on a test stand before a static-fire test June 19, perhaps because of the failure of a nitrogen composite overwrapped pressure vessel. The next Starship launch is now expected no earlier than late August.
“Every flight we’ve had of Starship so far has made tremendous progress,” Bednarek said citing various accomplishments on past flights, such as catching the Super Heavy booster back at the launch pad. “Putting flight hardware in the flight environment allows us to quickly execute design changes and bring Starship online.”
“Every lesson learned marks progress towards Starship’s goal of enabling life to become multiplanetary,” she said. “We learn from every launch.”