Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) has announced the successful launch of a record number of satellites in a single mission.
The company’s Falcon-9 first orbital-class reusable rocket lifted off with 143 payloads of all shapes and sizes from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US.
Designated as Transporter-1, the mission beats the previous record of 104 satellites carried by the PSLV-C37 vehicle on February 2017.
SpaceX tweeted: “Falcon 9 launches 143 spacecraft to orbit – the most ever deployed on a single mission – completing SpaceX’s first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Program mission.”
SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program allows small-satellite customers to directly reserve a space launch online with the company.
The Falcon 9 carried 133 commercial and government spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, and orbital transfer vehicles.
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By GlobalDataIt also carried ten Starlink satellites, which were the first in the constellation to deploy to a polar orbit.
These Starlink satellites will complement the more than 1,000 that are already deployed into orbit as a part of SpaceX’s own broadband network.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster was previously used for Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission, the ANASIS-II mission and a Starlink mission.
Last November, SpaceX and Nasa successfully launched the first operational crew mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS) carrying with four astronauts aboard from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral.
