How is SpaceX Launch Cadence constructed?
Published by Deepstory Research as the methodology attached to SpaceX Launch Cadence. Scope and source attribution are bounded by that Evidence Brief.
Procedure and scope
Counts orbital Falcon 9 launches by calendar year. Falcon Heavy and Starship flights are excluded so the series measures one vehicle’s cadence consistently across the period. The 2026 value is YEAR-TO-DATE as of Aug 4, 2026 and is labeled as such — it is not comparable to the completed years beside it without that adjustment. Annualising the Aug 4 run-rate is left to the reader rather than plotted, because launch cadence is not uniform across a calendar year. This index complements, and does not duplicate, the space-economy index — that one covers valuation, satellites and cost per kg. Scout run: Trending_Candidates/2026-08-06.md. Re-verified 2026-08-10.
Known failure modes and limits
- Falcon Heavy or Starship flights — Falcon 9 only.
- Revenue, cost per launch, or booster reuse counts.
- The Starlink vs third-party payload split across the full year.