SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the rocket manufacturing company has set a new global record by delivering over 1000 tons to orbit this year aboard its Falcon rocket, outmatching the total payload of any country.

What Happened: "Falcon has delivered over 1000 tons to orbit this year, a world record," Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He further compared this feat to the rest of the world, highlighting that the peak payload by the Soviet Union was around 500 tons, and currently, the entire world excluding SpaceX has only managed to deliver approximately 250 tons, with China being the major contributor.

This is significantly more than any country has launched with their entire rocket fleet in a year. Second is peak Soviet Union at ~500 tons.
For a present day comparison, the rest of the world has delivered ~250 tons to orbit so far this year, mostly by China.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2023

Why It Matters: Earlier in the year, Musk had predicted that that SpaceX would account for 80% of the total mass lifted to orbit in 2023, with China responsible for 10% and the rest of the world contributing the remaining 10%. The newly announced record hints towards the company closing in fast on Musk's expectations.

The company completed 26 launches in 2020, 31 in 2021, and nearly doubled it to 61 last year. As for this year, Musk said in March that the rocket manufacturing company is eyeing over 90 launches. SpaceX has launched over 80 times already this year with Falcon 9 accounting for a majority of its launches.

This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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