SpaceX Transition Update: October

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No Starship flew in October, and it shows in the mass-to-orbit.

It was all Falcon: 11 launches (10 Falcon 9, 1 Falcon Heavy) lifting about 134 t.

That's down from ~148 t in September and ~200 t in August.

New this month: how full was each rocket?

The bottom chart compares what each launch carried with the max for its landing mode and orbit.

image.png

  • Starlink flights: full
  • The two Dragons: ~90%
  • Rideshares: only ~30%

Across the 8 launches with a solid mass, I think ~80% is a fair average.

A few caveats. SpaceX only publishes expendable capacity, so the reusable maxes (~17.5 t drone ship, ~14.5 t RTLS) are estimates.

Two classified launches have no public mass, so the ~134 t uses catalog placeholders for them.

Mass is only half the story. Watch this space for November.

SpaceX Transition Update: October | Ecency