SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk-run aerospace company SpaceX aims for 12 launches per month, or one launch in less than three days.

A company official told ArsTechnica that it is planning for 144 launches next year. The goal is to put many more Starlink satellites in space to support the satellite-based cell phone service, due to launch next year as a texting-only service, with voice and data reportedly coming in 2025 and beyond. “With our 2 mn users, we need that constellation refreshed. We’re also going to look at direct to cell communications with Starlink, and that’s a key feature that gets added next year with those 144 flights,” the SpaceX official said.

Last year, SpaceX launched 61 missions and in the last 12 months, SpaceX has launched 88 rockets, plus one test flight of the company’s much larger Starship rocket to Mars. The success in recovering and reusing Falcon 9 boosters and payload fairings has been vital to making this feat possible, said the report.