FP TrendingJan 26, 2021 09:31:33 IST
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has broken the world record of the largest number of satellites carried by a single rocket as Falcon 9 carried as many as 143 payloads to space Monday. The announcement was part of the SpaceXat SmallSat Rideshare Program mission and the company’s social media handles shared photos from the release. Falcon 9 which has participated in several previous SpaceX missions was flown out of Florida to bring the 143 satellites of various shapes and sizes into their orbits.
Falcon 9 launches 143 spacecraft into orbit – the largest ever deployed on a single mission – completing SpaceX’s first special mission for the SmallSat Rideshare Program pic.twitter.com/CJSUvKWeb4
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 25, 2021
Before that, the record was 104 satellites used on one mission, performed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) orbit back in 2017. The satellites were launched through the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) aircraft on PSLV-C37 on 15 February 2017.
Falcon 9 launched 1433 spacecraft into orbit, successfully completing the first dedicated Rideshare SmallSat mission. Image credit: Twitter @SpaceX
According to a BBC report, SpaceX carried satellites for several private and government space agencies. Planet San Francisco had the largest number of satellites with 48 of its SuperDove models in flight. Iceye had satellites from Finland, Capella and Umbra from the US, and iQPS Japan as payloads. In addition to those, 10 satellites of SpaceX were part of the Starlink constellation.
The latest additions to their sister satellites come just days after the company launched a batch of 60 satellites on January 20th. These were orbited by Falcon 9. Now the total number of Starlink satellites in space has reached 965. According to the plan, the constellation is going to be a huge network of up to 30,000 satellites.
Most of the payloads Falcon 9 carried in the recent release were small, with the average size slightly larger than a mug of coffee. The largest items were, at best, the size of a suitcase. The Falcon would carry the 143 satellites to a 500 km high orbit that runs from pole to pole.