SpaceX breaks Starlink's annual launch record with 32nd mission in 2022

Starlink's service is now available in 36 countries, Elon Musk tweets

SpaceX is launching Starlink satellites to space quicker than its rivals in the satellite internet race due in part to Falcon 9 rocket's rapid reusability. Reuters

Elon Musk's SpaceX on Friday broke its record for the number of rockets launched in a calendar year, topping last year's slate of 31 missions amid a whirlwind campaign to launch its own internet satellites into orbit.

SpaceX's 32nd launch of 2022 using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket comes as the company races to build a constellation of broadband satellites called Starlink, a largely consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet users.

"Congrats to SpaceX team on record number of launches!" Mr Musk, SpaceX's chief executive, tweeted after the mission, which deployed 46 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

He also said on Twitter that Starlink's service is now available in 36 countries.

The mission took off from the company's California launchsite at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. SpaceX so far has launched nearly 3,000 Starlink satellites to space.

Friday's mission keeps SpaceX on pace to reach its goal of 52 orbital missions by the year's end, nearly doubling its annual launch cadence with the reusable Falcon 9 that SpaceX says can be reflown up to 15 times.

A majority of those missions have been, and are scheduled to be, in-house Starlink missions.

The company, founded by Mr Musk in 2002 to normalise interplanetary travel, has in recent months shifted its focus from manufacturing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of those already built, investing heavily in infrastructure for refurbishing boosters under speedy timelines.

The company has applied the same strategy to its fleet of reusable Crew Dragons, which are gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that launch on board the Falcon 9 and ferry humans to orbit and the International Space Station.

SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites into space quicker than its rivals in the satellite internet race, such as satellite operator OneWeb, due in part to Falcon 9's rapid reusability and the edge associated with using in-house rockets.

OneWeb, which is nearing completion of an internet constellation with fewer satellites, has launched its satellites on Russia's Soyuz rocket. The company this year plans to use the Falcon 9 after cancelling its Soyuz contract over Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.