SpaceX Launches New Cost-Cutting Rideshare Mission with 143 Small Satellites
By: Ashwathy Nair
On Sunday, the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket was lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, which is known as the Transporter-1 mission.
It was stated by SpaceX in a tweet that “143 spacecraft is being launched to orbit by Falcon 9, which is the most ever deployed on a single mission that is completing first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Programme mission of SpaceX.”
As per SpaceX, cheap access to space for small satellite companies that starts at $1 million for a 200-kg satellite is being offered by rideshare programme. A small satellite of the company can hitch a ride to space with this new mission, which is similar to a “rideshare Uber”.
A mix of shoebox-sized CubeSats and much heavier micro-satellites was sent by SpaceX’s Falcon9 rocket to a 326-mile-high polar orbit. A 48 Earth-imaging satellites, 17 tiny communications satellites, and 30 small satellites are included in the 143 satellites for the US as well as Europe by Germany-based Exolaunch.
In a statement by NASA, it stated that “The sheer number of payloads/satellites was well over the limit required for most satellites launched on a single mission to break both the U.S. and world records.”
Previously, both the records were held by Northrop Grumman with 108 satellites that were launched on the NG-10 Cygnus mission in November 2018. The previous record of SpaceX is 64 satellites on the SSO-A mission in December 2018, a flight that featured Spaceflight Industries’ Sherpa satellite dispenser.
Since 1969, Transporter -1 was the second mission to use the polar corridor route from Florida.
Just days after the company launched a batch of 60 satellites on 20 January, the new additions will be followed by their sister satellites. They were also placed in the Falcon 9 orbit. The cumulative number of Starlink space satellites has now reached 965. The constellation would be, as per the proposal, a vast network of up to 30,000 satellites.
In the new launch, most of the payloads carried by Falcon 9 were miniscule, with the average size being a little larger than a coffee mug. The largest things were suitcase-sized, at best. All 143 satellites were carried by the Falcon into a 500 km-high orbit which runs from pole to pole.
