Commercial space flights blast off

SpaceX leads the field of commercial space flight operators by a wide margin, having launched 281 flights since 2008, 90 of them in 2023 alone. A total of 494 U.S. commercial flights have flown since 2000


NUMBER OF U.S. COMMERCIAL SPACE LAUNCHES, 2000-2023

SpaceX
Elon Musk
281

Virgin
Richard Branson
20

Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos
17

Other
176

2000: Blue Origin founded
2002: SpaceX founded
2004: Virgin Galactic founded
2017: Virgin  Orbit* founded

Total
120
100
80
60
40
20
0	10 6 7 8 14 5 7 4 11 5 4 1 7 8 12 9 11 23 33 26 39 54 79 111
	2000 	2005 	2010 	2015 	2020

 
*Went bankrupt in 2023 after second launch failure ended future funding. Data as of Dec 19, 2023 


Sources: The Verge, Bloomberg, FAA 
Pictures: Creative Commons, Getty 
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