From a record-breaking 26 Falcon 9 launches and the triumph of its first crewed missions to the ISS, to groundbreaking Starship prototype tests, SpaceX achieved extraordinary milestones in 2020, captivating space enthusiasts worldwide.
Despite pandemic challenges slowing many aerospace players, SpaceX surged ahead with 26 missions in 2020, surpassing its 2018 record of 21 launches and marking the 100th Falcon 9 flight.
Of those, 23 first-stage boosters landed successfully—only two misses in February and March. A January Crew Dragon in-flight abort test intentionally skipped landing, with the stage destroyed as predicted by aerodynamic forces.
Reusability hit new heights: Two flights—a November 24 Starlink mission and December 13 Sirius XM satellite launch—used boosters with six prior flights, a company first.
Driving this pace was the Starlink constellation, with over half of launches deploying satellites for global broadband internet. Expect even more in 2021.
2020 marked a pivotal leap: On May 30, SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS aboard Crew Dragon—the first crewed U.S. orbital flight since 2011 and the first by a private company.
They splashed down safely in August, completing the Demo-2 test mission. On November 16, Crew-1 followed: NASA's operational flight with astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi.
SpaceX also resupplied the ISS with two unmanned cargo missions in March and December.
Starship, SpaceX's next-gen fully reusable spacecraft, advanced rapidly. SN5 and SN6 prototypes nailed 150-meter hops powered by single Raptor engines.
Next came a high-altitude test—targeting 15 km, adjusted to 12.5 km. SN8, with three Raptors, a nose cone, fins, and control surfaces, launched December 9, hit altitude, executed a "belly flop" maneuver, and attempted landing—crashing as expected, but gathering invaluable data.
SN9 awaits its turn soon, building on these successes.
