this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Falcon 9 Go Brrr (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 11 months ago by threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works to c/spaceflightmemes@sh.itjust.works
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It is rather incredible how dominant Falcon 9 is in the current launch market.

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[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ok, now what % of that was Starlink satellites?

[–] saze 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Great question! It sent me into a Google frenzy and here is what I found.

Q3 to me means three month period from 1st July to 30th September. During this time, there were 20 Starlink 'V2 mini' and 2 'V1.5' launches. Each 'V2 mini' mission contained 21-23 satellites, which I averaged to 22, and ~50 in each 'V1.5' mission. Further, each 'V1.5' satellite weighs in at 306kg and each 'V2 mini' weighs in at 800kg.

Phew! With all that out of the way, putting all that together ((20×800×22)+(2×306×50)), we arrive at a figure of 382,600kg. Uncannily, this is almost exactly the same as the figure reported in the graphic, ~~and of course there were a lot more Falcon 9 launches in the intervening period, leading me to believe the reported tonnage figure excludes Starlink satellites~~. See edit below.

This is all napkin maths done in the middle of the night, please feel free to (gently!) correct me if needed.

Inevitable correction: Q3 (as defined above) saw only one non-Starlink related Falcon 9 launch (source), therefore ~99.6% of reported tonnage was Starlink related!

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I see 5 non-Starlink launches, only 1 of which is a Falcon Heavy.

  • 7/1 Euclid (2160 kg)

  • 7/29 Jupiter-3 (9200 kg)

  • 8/3 Galaxy 37 (5063 kg)

  • 8/26 Crew 7 (13000 kg)

  • 9/2 SDA Tranche 0B (mass not listed)

Via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

So, that's more like 9-10% of their Q3 total, and still more than CASC or Roscosmos.

[–] saze 3 points 11 months ago

Fantastic! Thanks for putting in the legwork with the correction.