SpaceX Launch Schedule 2019: How Many Launches Are Planned For This Year?

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and vice president of commercial sales Jonathan Hofeller recently released statements saying that the company is aiming to surpass the number of spaceflights it made in 2018 this year. However, their previous announcement stated that they have a maximum of 18 flights planned for 2019, which is not enough to surpass their previous record. Here’s what we know about SpaceX’s launches.

According to Teslarati, Hofeller announced that they’re planning to exceed the number of flights they had in 2018. The company had a total of 21 successful missions last year. Theoretically, it’ll be impossible to surpass their 2018 record this year. Potentially, SpaceX could have more flights than planned, and it is possible that some of these launches’ details are still unknown to the public.

Currently, SpaceX has been successful due to its many commercial flights in the past years using the Falcon Heavy rocket. As of now, there are conflicts with the schedule of the Crew Dragon and Falcon Heavy flights this March. Its hangar can only handle preparation for one of the flights. We’ve yet to know which one will go first.

Since the number of spaceflights announced doesn’t match with the confirmation they previously made, some speculated that SpaceX might be focusing on their Starlink project. The project is expected to send at least 4,425 satellites into orbit. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has fired many senior managers in the project to employ new managers who will focus on executing the whole Starlink network of satellites by the middle of 2019.

Moreover, NASA has already received a $29 million major contract from US Air Force Research Laboratory, of which $19.1 million has already been allocated to SpaceX.

The test flights for the Starlink satellites, Tintin A and B, have been successful so far. All in all, their progress with Starlink could allow them to surpass their 2018 launches if they’re able to work out their current flight schedule this year and be able to execute the Starlink program.

For now, we’ll need to know more from Musk and the SpaceX executives to see if they’ll be able to break their flight record this year.