Who says 2022 was a lousy year? It was, unquestionably, an annus mirabilis for America’s space industry.
Eighty-seven attempts at orbital launches were made in 2022. Toss in the commercial suborbital market, and the number rises to 91.
To put the achievement in perspective, take a look at the chart below. The U.S. government didn’t establish a licensing regime for commercial rockets until the late 1980s. (Kudos to the Reagan administration for making it happen.) And for a quarter-century, progress was negligible. NASA and the Pentagon paid their cozy aerospace contractors handsome, cost-plus sums to handle the bureaucracies’ commitments. Prospects for a competitive launch habitat appeared astronomically slim.
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