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Historical launches like the return to crewed space flight and Mars2020 helped propel Florida's Space Coast to their busiest launch year in decades, putting the region on the top of the list for launch activity in the world.
In 2020, 31 successful attempts flew from Florida's Space Coast surpassing the record in 1966 of 29 successful launches out of 31 orbital attempts and two suborbital a Historical launches like the return to crewed space flight and Mars2020 helped propel Florida's Space Coast to their busiest launch year in decades, putting the region on the top of the list for launch activity in the world.
In 2020, 31 successful attempts flew from Florida's Space Coast surpassing the record in 1966 of 29 successful launches out of 31 orbital attempts and two suborbital attempts. SpaceX missions comprised 25 of the launches including Starlink internet satellites, two Crew Dragon and two space station resupply missions, and three national security payloads. United Launch Alliance contributed with five Atlas V launches, one of which was Mars2020, and one Delta Heavy.
"2020 certainly had us living up to our name," said Peter Cranis, Executive Director, Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism. "I can't imagine a better destination to bring your family and enjoy a launch, the beach, and all the other great amenities we have here."
2020 was also one of the busiest years for launching across the globe tying with 2018 for 114 launch attempts; the most orbital launches globally since 1990 during the Cold War. Florida's Space Coast ranked as the number one location for both successful and total launches, topping the 2nd and 3rd place locations combined (Jijquan, China with 13 attempts and two failures and Xichang, China with 13 attempts and one failure). The United States was the number 1 country as a whole, with 44 attempted launches, 40 of them being successful.
Looking ahead, 2021 will continue to be a banner year for space history on Florida's Space Coast. Significant launches include Crew 2 and Boeing's Starliner uncrewed test set for March, Starliner's crew test launch, a possible unmanned test flight for Neptune 1 (Space Perspective's tourist space flight program), Crew 3 scheduled for the Fall, the possibility of Tom Cruise launching in the first private commercial flight to film the first movie in space, and the continued efforts of NASA on the road to the Artemis program.
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Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
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