SpaceX launches a record 143 satellites from a single rocket

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has put 143 satellites into orbit, setting a new world record for the most-satellite rocket.

According to SpaceX, the Falcon 9 missile has left its launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at the US Space Force Base in Cape Canavera, Florida on January 24 (local time).

SpaceX set a new record, launching 143 satellites with the same rocket

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has put 143 satellites into orbit / ph: SpaceX's

The mission, called Transporter-1, brought 10 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink internet network and 133 other satellites for a variety of customers, including Planet (the company that operates the Earth image satellite) and ICEYE ( development of small radar satellite that tracks floods and ice).

The previous record for the most satellite-carrying missile belonged to India's PSLV missile, which carried 104 satellites in its 2017 launch.

Space X's Transporter-1 mission was the first in a rocket-sharing program that SpaceX announced in 2019. At the time, the company said it would spend the scheduled Falcon 9 "rocket launches. its regular "to carry a series of small satellites (also known as smallsat)," instead of focusing on a large payload device ".

Small satellites have appeared on the rise rapidly over the past few years. These satellites range in size from as small as a smartphone to as large as a refrigerator. As smallsats get more advanced, more businesses have entered a market that promises to provide services using new small satellite technology.

Usually the small satellites are put into orbit by being coupled with the larger, more expensive satellites, and the waiting list is often long.

However, small satellite launch has gained great momentum thanks to the booming small satellite market. Dozens of new rocket companies promise to make miniature rockets that can quickly and easily launch small satellites.

Two such companies, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, successfully launched miniature rockets into orbit and began commercial operations.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are much larger than those from Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, and they are often used to launch high-end telecommunications, spy satellites, or the Dragon spacecraft carrying astronauts. and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

The decision to take on additional missions to get a small satellite into orbit is a first for SpaceX and is a sign that interest in the industry has increased.

However, as the number of devices in orbit increases, experts are increasingly concerned about congestion. In the past, the satellites have collided in orbit, and although such incidents don't pose much of a threat to humans on the ground, debris from the collisions could stay in orbit for years or decades.

SpaceX is the acronym for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, a private company that builds and services boosters and US spacecraft headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman who founded PayPal and Tesla Motors.

SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters with the aim of becoming reusable rockets. The company is also developing the Dragon and Crew Dragon spaceships launched into orbit using the Falcon 9 rocket.