Record Satellite Launches In 2023

A brief update on SpaceX and Starlink.

Here’s just a brief update on satellite launches in 2023. Last August, we wrote about Starlink’s extraordinary launch pace, which continued through the rest of the year.

In 2023, Starlink, which offers Internet service over much of the globe via small ground receiver/transmitters, launched 1,984 satellites. A record number of non-Starlink satellites (915) were also launched, thanks in large part to SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company. Before 2017, the most total satellites ever launched in a single year was around 250.

Over the last five years, Starlink alone launched 5,650 satellites, with 5,233 still in service.

In the last six years, SpaceX and others have put more new satellites (9,185) into space than in the previous 60 years combined (7,995).

In its first launch of 2024, Starlink announced six of its new satellites were equipped with direct-to-smartphone capability. It’s the first ever satellite phone service which doesn’t require a satellite-specific handset.