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SpaceX sends OneWeb satellites to orbit on 55th launch of 2022
SpaceX has successfully launched the first of at least three missions for Starlink competitor OneWeb, completing its 55th launch of the year in the process.
Hopefully ending a strange series of delays that began last month, Falcon 9 lifted off from SpaceX’s NASA Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad several days behind schedule on December 8th, 2022. The rocket performed perfectly, ascending for about nine minutes to reach a parking orbit around 400 kilometers (~300 mi) above Earth’s surface. B1069, Falcon 9’s flight-proven booster, shut down, separated from the upper stage, flipped around with cold-gas thrusters, and began boosting back to the Florida coast two and a half minutes after liftoff.
Thanks to the launch’s timing, which happened moments after sunset, B1069 first experienced sunset on the ground, ascended back into the light after liftoff, and finally experienced a second sunset while racing back to Earth – all beautifully captured by SpaceX tracking cameras. Eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 booster touched down on SpaceX’s LZ-1 landing pad, completing its fourth orbital-class launch in 12 months. Around the same time, Falcon 9’s upper stage reached orbit.
The update that's rolling out to the fleet makes full use of the front and rear steering travel to minimize turning circle. In this case a reduction of 1.6 feet just over the air— Wes (@wmorrill3) April 16, 2024
An hour after liftoff, the upper stage ignited a second time to circularize its parking orbit. Its payload – a record 40 OneWeb satellites weighing roughly 6.5 metric tons (~14,300 lb) – was then deployed in two sets of 13 and one set of 14 over the next half hour, after which the upper stage likely performed a deorbit burn to ensure it doesn’t become space debris.
For its own Starlink internet constellation, SpaceX routinely launches 54+ satellites – weighing almost 17 tons (~37,000 lb) – at once, demonstrating the kind of efficiency that can be achieved when a satellite is explicitly designed to use as much of Falcon 9’s performance as possible. To some extent, OneWeb did something similar, but for a different rocket. OneWeb’s far more traditional 150-kilogram (~330 lb) satellites were loosely designed to launch on Russia’s Soyuz 2.1 after the company purchased up to 21 of the rockets for $1-1.5 billion in 2015.
But their more traditional hollow-box design and traditional cylindrical payload dispenser means they take up as much or more space than Starlink satellites despite weighing 50-100% less. OneWeb says each satellite provides up to 7 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bandwidth, while each Starlink V1 satellite appears to have about 20 Gbps.
As previously discussed on Teslarati, OneWeb directly competes with SpaceX’s far larger Starlink internet constellation, and refused to engage with the company for launch services – even though Falcon 9 could have likely deployed its satellites more quickly and efficiently – until it was forced to.
“The only reason OneWeb agreed to launch a small subset of its first-generation satellites on SpaceX rockets was a series of egregious actions from Russia that made the pair’s exclusive arrangement too toxic to continue. In June 2015, just 16 months after Russia illegally invaded Ukraine’s Crimea and Donbas regions, OneWeb chose to tie itself at the hip to the unstable aggressor with a firm $1-1.5 billion contract that committed the entirety of its first satellite constellation to 21 Russian Soyuz rockets.
OneWeb nearly escaped consequences from that dubious decision. But in February 2022, Russia doubled down on eight years of small-scale war and Ukrainian occupation with a full-scale, gloves-off invasion with explicit genocidal intent. Europe eventually responded in part with economic sanctions and military supplies that Russia did not appreciate. In response, Russia took a batch of 36 OneWeb satellites hostage, stole the Soyuz rocket OneWeb had already paid for, and killed any possibility of the company completing the six or seven Soyuz launches left under its Arianespace contract. In September 2022, OneWeb announced that it had written off a loss of $229 million as a result of those stolen satellites and rockets.”
Teslarati.com — December 6th, 2022
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OneWeb was thus forced to either accept major delays while waiting for European launch options or look elsewhere. OneWeb was able to secure two contracts for India LVM3 rockets, each carrying 36 satellites, but the company chose SpaceX – the only Western launch provider in the world with large amounts of near-term capacity to spare – to launch three batches of 40 satellites.
After its first SpaceX launch, OneWeb should have 500 working satellites in orbit. Another LVM3 launch and two Falcon 9 launches should leave the company with 616 of 648 planned satellites in orbit. It’s unclear how OneWeb intends to launch the 32 remaining satellites.
OneWeb Flight 15 was SpaceX’s 55th successful launch of 2022, leaving the company just five launches away from achieving a 60-launch target set by CEO Elon Musk in March. Following an unintentional 12-day gap between launches caused by several delays, it’s no longer clear if SpaceX can hit that target. SpaceX has never launched later than December 23rd, and it’s extremely unlikely that the company will be able to launch five more times in the next 15 days. Even if it can break through that apparent barrier, it’s also almost impossible to imagine that SpaceX will be able to launch five more times before the end of the year if each mission continues to suffer days or weeks of technical delays.
Originally scheduled to lift off on November 22nd, 29th, 30th, and December 7th, SpaceX’s next mission – carrying a private Japanese Moon lander – is scheduled to launch no earlier than December 11th. After HAKUTO-R, Spaceflight Now reports that SpaceX has another four launches tentatively scheduled this month.
Rewatch SpaceX’s first OneWeb launch here.
Elon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.
SpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.
The launch was overwhelmingly successful. SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Nevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.
Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean
Musk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to recover Starship after splashdown in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.
We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2026
This helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.
Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims
Musk has already indicated that SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.
The ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
A ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.
It is a necessity to make life multiplanetary.
Elon Musk has updated his timeline for when humans will walk on Mars and for when ships will simply get there.
The objective of getting to Mars has been one of Musk’s biggest goals since becoming a serial entrepreneur and realizing that time on Earth is limited. Musk has said several times he hopes to die on Mars, and not by impact.
Musk now believes that people will be on Mars in “roughly 5 to 7 years.” He said that a Mars lander will get there “a few years sooner.”
People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.
Mars lander a few years sooner.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
The response from Musk comes after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that SpaceX’s biggest priority is the Moon and not Mars. Because of this, Isaacman conceded that he believes nuclear power and propulsion investments will provide “potentially the pathway with the fewest miracles required to put four people on Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.”
Of course, this is what NASA can do through taxpayer funding and nuclear investments, he added.
Musk’s grand ambitions are much more optimistic than most, and it is certainly a double-edged sword. This is not the first time timelines for Mars have been somewhat lofty, especially to those normal thinkers like you and me, not super geniuses like Musk.
In fact, the SpaceX and Tesla frontman has said on at least a dozen occasions that we could be on Mars in the coming years. Musk said 2020 would be the big year as early as 2009. In 2020, he was “highly confident” of a landing in 2026, and had even said 2024 in a best-case scenario.
The point is, the range has varied, and it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll get there. This latest adjustment to the timeline is typical of Musk, and while the Moon has seemingly taken priority over Mars, it is still worth mentioning that the ultimate goal is to make life multiplanetary, and it starts potentially with the Red Planet.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.
Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.
SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.
It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.
The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.
Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
Elon Musk updates the SpaceX timeline for Mars
