A much-anticipated record five rocket launches in 24-hours was scuttled yesterday when a New Zealand launch was postponed due to concerns about possible collisions with existing space objects.
The number of satellites orbiting Earth is increasing at an accelerating rate with yesterday’s scheduled five rocket payloads underlining the rate of growth.
But the day also underlined another concern – collisions in space with the postponement of one launch ruining what otherwise would have been a record number of rocket launches in 24 hours.
In June 2024, Space Watch Global reported more than 10,000 active satellites in Earth orbit, with two-thirds of them (6646) belonging to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
According to the Australian Space Agency, that number will reach 100,000 in 5-10 years’ time.

SpaceX launches two Maxar Earth-observing satellites. Pic: Space.com
The reason for the rapid increase is the skyrocketing number of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that are increasingly being used for communications around the world.
The danger is the potential for exponentially increasing amounts of space junk, sparking collisions between satellites (active and dead) and fast-moving space junk, and an increased possibility, albeit small, of a human carrying spacecraft being obliterated.
The February 4 scheduled launch of five rockets took place at different locations around the world. It didn’t mean the addition of just five more satellites or items circling Earth, there was to be much more.
The first launch, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carried 21 Starlink satellites to add to SpaceX’s communication network, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, Digitaltrends.com reported. That was additional to the 23 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX on January 24.
It’s not just SpaceX. This year Amazon is finally gearing to launch a substantial number of LEO satellites as part of its Project Kuiper.
And don’t forget those pesky Russians. In November last year Russia launched 53 satellites from a single Soyuz rocket. No doubt more are on the way.
The second of the five planned launches was for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-29 Mission which will simulate the moon’s gravity for tests and experiments involving 30 payloads, reported Digitaltrends.com. It launched form West Texas.

Rocket Lab postpones February 4 launch
The third launch was to be by Rocket Lab from a New Zealand launch site, but it was postponed because of concern about a possible collision with the International Space Station and other objects.
“Electron is ready for lift-off, but the latest COLA (Collision on Launch Avoidance/Assessment) report is in and it rules out our single instantaneous launch opportunity for tomorrow’s @KineisIoT launch,” the agency posted on X.
“Collision On Launch Avoidance/Assessment – a process that assesses space traffic from other satellites and the ISS to determine when a rocket can be launched safely. It essentially it tells us when it’s safe to merge onto the space highway,” Rocket Lab explained.
The fourth launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida did get off the ground. It was another SpaceX event; the rocket carried two Earth observation satellites from the Maxar Company.
The fifth scheduled launch was an unknown payload from the Russian space agency Roscosmos using a Soyuz rocket.
Instead of being a record, the four successful rocket launches in a day is now shared with another big launch day in August last year. That’s provided the Russian launch actually has happened.