Billionaire Elon Musk made it known on Tuesday that by the close of the year, his space company, SpaceX, would take up over 90% of the Earth's payload to low-Earth orbit. Musk announced through the social media platform X from a report that the orbital launch attempts of SpaceX in the first quarter of 2024 had been more successful than half of the 63 global ones.
Expecting even a larger stake, Musk said that the SpaceX stake could even top "over 99 percent" once the giant Starship vehicle launches. This 400-foot rocket, along with the Heavy Booster, would go into manned missions to the Moon, specifically the Artemis 3 crewed mission in 2026.
"SpaceX might exceed 90 per cent of all Earth payload to orbit later this year. Once Starship is launching at a high rate, probably >99 per cent," Musk said in his X post while explaining how such capabilities were crucial to creating human settlements on Mars or lunar bases. He also said SpaceX takes an open approach to innovation with very few patent filings and is open to competition in the space sector.
A Q1 Launch Report from the Payload website reported that SpaceX was far ahead of Chinese launchers, which launched 13.6 times lower payloads. SpaceX's launch attempts in Q1 2024 saw an increase of 11 flights from the corresponding period in 2023.
"Has to be or we can't build a city on Mars or base on the Moon. We file almost no patents, so nothing stopping competition from copying us," he added.
Looking forward, Musk confirmed the fourth test flight for the Starship vehicle would take place in about two weeks. For this, Musk pointedly noted the main goal was to get through maximum re-entry heating, and added, no one had ever made a fully reusable heat shield before, saying the Space Shuttle needed over six months of rework.
"The primary goal is getting through max re-entry heating. Worth noting that no one has ever succeeded in creating a fully reusable heat shield. Shuttle required >6 months of rework," he noted.
Separately, Musk celebrated that Starlink, SpaceX's satellite-based Internet service, has more than 3 million customers across 99 countries. In a post, he thanked customers for their loyalty to the company, noting the ease with which Starlink's high-speed Internet service could be bought online without long-term contracts.
"Congratulations to the @SpaceX team on passing 3 million customers in 99 countries! And thanks to you for buying @Starlink!," Musk praised, adding that the service was so user-friendly, it only takes minutes to order the system online.
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