The article discusses SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas, which is home to the company's next generation Starship rocket factory and launch pads. The facility boasts unparalleled capabilities and has already witnessed the launch of the world's largest and most powerful rocket. Additionally, SpaceX has made significant progress in constructing a second Starship launch site in Florida, including building launch towers with steel arms capable of precisely handling and fueling the Starship and Super Heavy spacecraft. The article also notes the company's impressive launch cadence from its Florida and California launch sites, with SpaceX having completed 66 launches and aiming to reach 100 launches in 2023. The company's ability to reuse rocket boosters has allowed for faster turnaround times between launches. Finally, the article lists several upcoming SpaceX launches, including missions for NASA, a commercial lunar lander, and a missile defense agency.
1. SpaceX has a spaceport named Starbase in South Texas which will serve as the launch site for dozens if not hundreds of Starship flights every month.
2. The scale and complexity of the launch infrastructure in Starbase is unparalleled, even compared to NASA.
3. SpaceX is also constructing a launch facility in Florida, which will be the first location in a launch network more extensive than we might think.
4. SpaceX has completed the fabrication of a massive pair of steel arms called "Chopsticks" that are an essential part of the Starship launch tower in Florida, known as Mechazilla.
5. Falcon 9 completed a record-breaking 61 flights in a single year.
6. SpaceX's ability to reuse rocket boosters and first-stage components is the primary factor driving their increasing launch cadence.
7. SpaceX's ground team has been optimizing their launch sites for faster turnaround times, reducing the turnaround time in their busiest launch site in Florida to less than four days between missions.
8. SpaceX has supported 46 orbital launches involving SpaceX, Ula, and relativity space in its Spaceport in Florida, surpassing the 57 launches it hosted the previous year.
9. In the remaining quarter of the year, SpaceX already has a packed schedule of pre-scheduled launches, including two Falcon heavy rocket launches, two resupply missions to the ISS, and a missile defense agency mission called Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS).