SpaceX Plans 120 Starship Launches Per Year from Cape Canaveral, But Rivals are Against It

A massive plan by SpaceX will soon be considered. It claimed that it wants to hold as many as 120 Starship launches per year, but this number is meant for its departure from Cape Canaveral, Florida. While SpaceX and Starship's base of operations is located on Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, they are looking to move to another location for their future launches.

Elon Musk and SpaceX are ambitious with the Starship, and this year alone, they want to hold at least nine launches for the rocket before its success in its fourth test flight.

SpaceX Plans 120 Starship Launches Per Year From Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is planning to bring the Starship to a new home, another base where it will launch the Stainless Steel rocket with as many as 120 launches per year, according to a report from TechCrunch. Its next launch location would be Florida's Cape Canaveral, with its initial plans of 44 launches per year on NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which already sees rivals going against this feat.

SpaceX will center on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's (CCSFS) Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) in this new plan.

According to TechCrunch, SpaceX plans to hold 76 launches per year on SLC-37 and 120 launches per year within Cape Canaveral's vicinity.

Rival Companies Are Against Disrupting Operations in Florida

Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have already raised concerns about SpaceX's plan to launch Starships, asking regulators to limit the launches to avoid disrupting operations in Florida's Cape Canaveral.

The US Space Force is already preparing a draft for an environmental assessment of SpaceX's launch cadence, which may change according to the agency.

SpaceX and Its Massive Plans for Starship

For many years, SpaceX has struggled to see success for its Starship rocket despite the massive plans initially teased by the company and its CEO for its future role in bringing humans to Mars. However, that is finally closer thanks to its success in the fourth test flight last June, with the Starship able to reach the orbit and return without exploding.

In February, as SpaceX was working to obtain its needed license to launch both the Starship and Super Heavy Booster, it unveiled to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) that it plans to have as many as nine launches in 2024 alone. This was before its success for the Starship program's tests, and it is known that this third launch also ended with the rocket blowing to smithereens.

Now that it has found success, the company plans to mass-produce the Starship rocket moving forward, with multiple rockets available for its missions and as part of its commercial availability. That being said, it is not planning to have it all launch from Starbase, as it is planning for its departure from Cape Canaveral, where it would perform as many as 120 launches in a year.