Elon Musk congratulates SpaceX for record-setting 96 Falcon launches in 2023

SpaceX has achieved a record-setting number of rocket launches by a company. It announced on December 29 the completion of 96 Falcon 9 launches to orbit in 2023, dozens more than the number achieved in the previous year.

This number was achieved with the launch of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 with 23 Starlink satellites from Florida today. Company CEO Elon Musk too acknowledged the success saying, "Congrats to the SpaceX team on achieving 96 launches in 2023!"

Congrats to the SpaceX team on achieving 96 launches in 2023! https://t.co/RWNJQH8eY3

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

In 2022, Musk had said his company will target 100 launches this year. While he fell just short of the mark, SpaceX surpassed the promise of 60 Falcon 9 launches last year.

Earlier in November, Musk also announced that Falcon 9 created a world record by delivering over 1000 tons to orbit in 2023 alone. "This is significantly more than any country has launched with their entire rocket fleet in a year. Second is peak Soviet Union at approximately 500 tons," Musk said in a post on X.

Opposite SpaceX stood rest of the world with around 250 tons of payload to orbit, Musk claimed.

This year has seen the total number of global launches in a calendar year easily race past the record set in 2022 - 179. The previous best record was 129 when the space race was at its peak during the cold war. According to Ars Technica, 2005 saw the lowest number of launches - 52.