SpaceX, Firefly, Rocket Lab & China Reached Milestones with October Launches

China completed construction of its space station, SpaceX reached multiple milestones, Firefly Aerospace put payloads in orbit for the first time, OneWeb resumed deployment of its broadband constellation aboard an Indian rocket, and a new crew began a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station during October.

There were 23 orbital launch attempts last month, or a launch on average every 32 hours and 21 minutes. That is the highest monthly total for the year. There were 21 successes, one failure and a partial failure in October. The world surpassed the number of launches for all of 2021 with two months left on the calendar.

Let’s take a closer look at who launched what last month.

Launches by Nation

U.S. launch providers flew nine times in October, with China and Russia tied for second with six launches apiece. India and Japan launched one time each.

Orbital Launches by Nation
October 2022

Nation	Successes	Failures	Partial Failures	Total	Year to Date
United States	8	0	1	9	69-2-1*
China	6	0	0	6	47-1-0
Russia	6	0	0	6	19-0-0
India	1	0	0	1	3-1-0
Japan	0	1	0	1	0-1-0
Total	21	1	1	23	138-5-1

The 23 launch attempts in October raised the number for the year to 148. (SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy flight on Nov. 1 was the 149th orbital launch.) There have been 143 successes, five failures and a partial failure this year. In 2021, there were 146 launch attempts with 135 successes, 10 failures and one partial failure.

The United States continues to lead with 72 launches, followed by China with 48 and Russia with 19. India has launch four times, Europe three times, and Japan, Iran and South Korea have launched one time apiece.

USA

SpaceX launched two-thirds of the nine U.S. orbital flights in October. The missions included:

• Crew-5 to the ISS with American, Japanese and Russian crew members
• 159 Starlink broadband satellites on three launches
• three geosynchronous communications satellites for two customers.

Launches by American Companies
October 2022

Date	Launcher – Organization	Payload – Organization	Purpose	Launch Site
Oct. 1	Alpha — Firefly Aerospace	9 payloads – Various	Various	Vandenberg
Oct. 4	Atlas V – United Launch Alliance	SES-20, SES-21 – SES	GEO commsats	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 5	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	Crew Dragon – SpaceX	ISS crew	Kennedy
Oct. 5	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	52 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Vandenberg
Oct. 7	Electron – Rocket Lab	GAzelle (Argos-4) – NOAA/CNES	Communications	Mahia Peninsula (New Zeland)
Oct. 8	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	Galaxy 33, 34 – Intelsat	GEO commsats	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 15	Falcon 9 — SpaceX	Hotbird 13F — Eutelsat	GEO comsat	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 20	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	54 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 27	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	53 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Vandenberg

SpaceX has launched 33 Falcon 9 rockets dedicated to deploying Starlink broadband satellites. The company has deployed 1,624 Starlink spacecraft this year, and 2,600 Starlink satellites on 49 dedicated launches and one rideshare mission since January 2021.

SpaceX reached the following milestones during October:

• 49 Falcon 9 launches, breaking the old record of 47 for a rocket family in a calendar year
• 100th SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• more than 3,500 Starlink satellites launched into orbit.

SpaceX could well meet CEO Elon Musk’s goal of launching 60 times this year. He has said the company will aim for 100 launches in 2023.

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha booster placed payloads in orbit for the first time after the rocket failed during its maiden flight in September 2021. Firefly considered the flight to be a complete success. However, Wikipedia lists the mission as a partial failure because the payloads were released at a lower altitude than planned.

Rocket Lab set a new company record of eight launches in a calendar year when an Electron rocket placed the Franco-American GAzelle (Argos-4) satellite into orbit from New Zealand. The spacecraft, a joint project of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the French space agency CNES, will collect environmental data from sensors located around the world.

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V completed a rare commercial mission when it launches the SES 20 and SES 21 geosynchronous communications satellites for SES.

China

China saved its biggest launch for the end of the month. On Oct. 31, a Long March 5B launched the Mengtian science module to the Tiangong space station. The module docked with the facility the next day, completing the assembly of China’s first permanent space station.

Chinese Launches
October 2022

Date	Launcher – Organization	Payload – Organization	Purpose	Launch Site
Oct. 7	Long March 11H – CASC	Centispace-1 S5 & S6 – Beijing Future Navigation Technology	Navigation	China Sea Launch Platform
Oct. 9	Long March 2D – CASC	Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory — CAS^	Solar observation	Jiuquan
Oct. 13	Long March 2C – CASC*	S-SAR 01 (Huanjing-2E) – Ministry of National Emergency	Earth observation	Taiyuan
Oct. 14	Long March 2D — CASC*	Yaogan 36-02A, 36-02B, 36-02C — CAS+	Reconnaissance	Xichang
Oct. 29	Long March 2D – CASC*	Shiyan 20C – CAST^	Tech demo	Jiuquan
Oct. 31	Long March 5B – CASC*	Mengtian – CMSA>	Station module	Wenchang

Tiangong is now configured in a T-configuration with its Tianhe core module and Mengtian and Wentian science modules. Taikonauts will conduct research inside the modules and attach experiments to the outside of the station. China has said it eventually plans to expand the permanent crew from three to six taikonauts.

China’s other five launches in October included an advanced solar observatory, three reconnaissance satellites, two navigation spacecraft, a technology demonstration satellite, and an Earth observation spacecraft for the Ministry of National Emergency.

Russia

Russia picked up the pace last month, conducting six of its 19 launches this year. On Oct. 26, a Soyuz-2.1a rocket launched the Progress MS-21 resupply ship to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Russian Launches
October 2022

Date	Launcher – Organization	Payload – Organization	Purpose	Launch Site
Oct. 10	Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat — RVSN RF~	GLONASS-K 17L (K1 №5) – VKS#	Navigation	Plesetsk
Oct. 12	Proton – Roscosmos	AngoSat-2 – GGPEN –	GEO comsat	Baikonur
Oct. 15	Angara 1.2 — Roscosmos	EMKA No. 3 — Ministry of Defence	Possibly optical reconnaissance satellite	Plesetsk
Oct. 21	Soyuz-2.1v – Roscosmos	MKA №1 (Kosmos 2561), MKA №1 (Kosmos 2561) – VKS#	Tech demo	Plesetsk
Oct. 23	Soyuz-2.1b – Roscosmos	Gonets-M 23, M24, M25; Skif-D – Gonets Satellite System, Roscosmos	Communications, Tech demo	Vostochny
Oct. 26	Soyuz-2.1a — Roscosmos	Progress MS-21 — Roscosmos	ISS Resupply	Baikonur

Russia also launched three Gonets communications satellites, Angola’s AngoSat-2 comsat, a GLONASS navigation spacecraft, a technology demonstration satellite, and what is believed to be a reconnaissance satellite. Skif-D is a prototype satellite for the Skif high-speed broadband constellation.

The launch of the Gonets and Skif-D satellites on Oct. 23 was the first of the year from the new(ish) Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.

India

India scored a major success for its effort to commercialize its space program when a GSLV Mk III rocket orbited 36 OneWeb broadband satellites. It was the first OneWeb launch since February after relations between the London-based company and Russia broke down over that nation’s invasion of Ukraine. All previous OneWeb satellites had launched on 13 Russian Soyuz boosters. OneWeb canceled the remaining six Soyuz launches planned for this year.

The launch raised the number of OneWeb satellites in orbit to 462. The full broadband constellation will include 658 satellites.

OneWeb has secured two Indian GSLV Mk III launches. The second GSLV Mk III launch is scheduled for January. OneWeb will also launch satellites on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.

Japan

Japan saw its first — and thus far, only — launch of the year go awry on Oct. 12. The Epsilon rocket, which had eight technology demonstration satellites aboard, began to veer off course at the time its second and third stages separated. Controllers activated the rocket’s self-destruct system as a safety measure.

Investigators have said a malfunctioning attitude control thruster caused the rocket to veer off course. It was the first failure in six launches of the solid-fuel Epsilon rocket.

Launches by Location

The 23 launches were conducted from 13 spaceports and a floating platform in seven countries. There were four launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Florida has hosted 47 launches from the Cape and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center through Nov. 1.

Launches by Location
Through Nov. 1, 2022

Launch Site	Successes	Failures	Partial Failure	Total	Year to Date
Cape Canaveral (USA)	4	0	0	4	30-2-0
Plesetsk (Russia)	3	0	0	3	10-0-0
Vandenberg (USA)	2	0	1	3	12-0-1
Baikonur (Kazakhstan)	2	0	0	2	7-0-0
Jiuquan (China)	2	0	0	2	18-1-0
Kennedy (USA)	2	0	0	2	15-0-0
Taiyuan (China)	1	0	0	1	11-0-0
Xichang (China)	1	0	0	1	11-0-0
Mahia (New Zealand)	1	0	0	1	8-0-0
Satish Dhawan (India)	1	0	0	1	3-1-0
Wenchang (China)	1	0	0	1	5-0-0
Vostochny (Russia)	1	0	0	1	1-0-0
Yellow Sea (China)	1	0	0	1	1-0-0
Uchinoura (Japan)	0	1	0	1	0-1-0
	22	1	1	24	132-5-1

Orbital Launches

Below is the list of launches in October.

Orbital Launches
October 2022

Date	Launcher – Organization	Payload – Organization	Purpose	Launch Site
Oct. 1	Alpha — Firefly Aerospace	9 payloads – Various	Various	Vandenberg
Oct. 4	Atlas V – United Launch Alliance	SES-20, SES-21 – SES	GEO commsats	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 5	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	Crew Dragon – SpaceX	ISS crew	Kennedy
Oct. 5	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	52 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Vandenberg
Oct. 7	Long March 11H – CASC	Centispace-1 S5 & S6 – Beijing Future Navigation Technology	Navigation	China Sea Launch Platform
Oct. 7	Electron – Rocket Lab	GAzelle (Argos-4) – NOAA/CNES	Communications	Mahia Peninsula
Oct. 8	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	Galaxy 33, 34 – Intelsat	GEO commsats	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 9	Long March 2D – CASC	Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory — CAS^	Solar observation	Jiuquan
Oct. 10	Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat — RVSN RF~	GLONASS-K 17L (K1 №5) – VKS#	Navigation	Plesetsk
Oct. 12	Epsilon – JAXA [FAILED]	8 satellites – Various	Various	Uchinoura
Oct. 12	Proton – Roscosmos	AngoSat-2 – GGPEN –	GEO comsat	Baikonur
Oct. 13	Long March 2C – CASC*	S-SAR 01 (Huanjing-2E) – Ministry of National Emergency	Earth observation	Taiyuan
Oct. 14	Long March 2D — CASC*	Yaogan 36-02A, 36-02B, 36-02C — CAS+	Reconnaissance	Xichang
Oct. 15	Falcon 9 — SpaceX	Hotbird 13F — Eutelsat	GEO comsat	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 15	Angara 1.2 — Roscosmos	EMKA No. 3 — Ministry of Defence	Possibly optical reconnaissance satellite	Plesetsk
Oct. 20	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	54 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Cape Canaveral
Oct. 21	Soyuz-2.1v – Roscosmos	MKA №1 (Kosmos 2561), MKA №1 (Kosmos 2561) – VKS#	Tech demo	Plesetsk
Oct. 23	GSLV Mk III – ISRO`	36 OneWeb — OneWeb	Broadband	Satish Dhawan
Oct. 23	Soyuz-2.1b – Roscosmos	Gonets-M 23, M24, M25; Skif-D – Gonets Satellite System, Roscosmos	Communications, Tech demo	Vostochny
Oct. 26	Soyuz-2.1a — Roscosmos	Progress MS-21 — Roscosmos	ISS Resupply	Baikonur
Oct. 27	Falcon 9 – SpaceX	53 Starlink – SpaceX	Broadband	Vandenberg
Oct. 29	Long March 2D – CASC*	Shiyan 20C – CAST^	Tech demo	Jiuquan
Oct. 31	Long March 5B – CASC*	Mengtian – CMSA>	Station module	Wenchang