The US military, which supervises rocket launches from its Vandenburg Space Force Base in California, says it is preparing to allow an increase the number of SpaceX Falcon 9 launches to 100 annually, and well up on the number currently allowed.

The military is discussing with the Federal Aviation Administration for permissions. However, California’s Coastal Commission is objecting to the increase and wants to limit launches to 50 per year.

As of 2024, Vandenberg Space Force Base has launched 46 spaceport and test range missions, with 41 of these being Falcon 9 rockets.

Earlier this week SpaceX’s president and COO Gwynn Shotwell, speaking at an event organised by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said that SpaceX expects to launch 136 times in 2024 and “maybe 175-180” next year.

Shotwell also touched on Elon Musk’s commitment to getting rockets to visit and populate Mars.

“It won’t happen in my lifetime or my kids’, but I want humans to travel to other star systems. Mars? It’s a fixer upper planet. People will get there and wonder why they went. We want to find other Earth-like planets. Some version of Starship will do that,” she said.

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Tags: california, spacex, usa