Beating ISRO's record, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Launches 143 Satellites

Florida, January 25: Breaking ISRO's record, Elon musk led American private space major SpaceX has created history by launching 143 satellites into space in quick succession over its Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon9 rocket lifted off on Sunday from the Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission was called the transporter-1 Mission. It placed 143 commercial and Government satellites into space in a total of about 90 minutes.

"Falcon 9 launches 143 spacecraft to orbit -- the most ever deployed on a single mission -- completing SpaceX's first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Programme mission," SpaceX said in a tweet.

 

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket sent a mix of shoebox-sized CubeSats and much heavier micro-satellites to a 326-mile-high polar orbit. The 143 satellites include 48 satellites from Earth-imaging company Planet Labs, a small NASA mission called V-R3x to test ways to track small spacecraft in Earth orbit, and 36 small communications satellites from Swarm Technologies.

 

 

 

 

Apart from it also includes 17 tiny communications satellites 10 Starlink satellites. Starlink is part of the company's SmallSat Rideshare Program, which provides access to space for small satellite operators seeking what SpaceX calls a reliable, affordable ride to orbit.

 

The total mass of the satellites on board was about 5,000 kilograms. With these satellites, SpaceX aims to provide near-global broadband internet coverage all over the world by 2021.

 

In February 2017 ISRO deployed 104 satellites in a single launch.

 

SpaceX carried out the mission as a first under its SmallSat RideShare Program which enables small-satellite customers to book a ride to orbit with SpaceX. The company is said to have charged a very low fee of $15,000 per kilogram for each satellite to be lifted to the polar sun-synchronous orbit.