And that s the
least significant bit of today s news.
Adding Starlink satellites to orbit, you see, was only a small part of Sunday s mission. The larger part was reducing the cost of putting satellites in space dramatically with the first successful demonstration of SpaceX s Smallsat Rideshare Program . and setting a new record for most satellites put in orbit by a single rocket.
It s getting pretty crowded in here. 143 satellites crammed into SpaceX s Transporter-1 space mission. Image source: SpaceX.
All aboard the Smallsat Express!
In addition to SpaceX s own 10 Starlink satellites, Sunday s manifest included:
48 Planet SuperDove Earth-imaging satellites.
36 Swarm Technologies SpaceBee Internet-of-Things
SpaceX Launches Record-Setting 143 Satellites in First Rideshare Mission
SpaceX Launches Record-Setting 143 Satellites in First Rideshare Mission By Ryan Whitwam on January 25, 2021 at 1:00 pm
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It’s undeniable that SpaceX has become the most innovative company in aerospace when you realize how often we have to say the following: SpaceX has set another record. This time, the company founded by Elon Musk has shattered the record for most satellites delivered to space in a single launch. On Sunday (Jan. 24), SpaceX launched the Transporter-1 mission with an incredible 143 satellites. Not everyone is celebrating, though.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Boosts Record 143 Satellites Into Orbit on Rideshare Mission
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted a record 143 small satellites into a polar orbit on Sunday in the company s first dedicated rideshare mission, a response to the growing demand for low-cost access to space by smaller, non-traditional companies and institutions.
The Transporter 1 mission also served as a reminder of the ongoing debate over what role the government should play regulating the increasingly crowded domain of low-Earth orbit where collisions would create high-speed shrapnel threatening other spacecraft. No universally accepted rules of the road exist for the safety of space operations, much less a regulatory regime for active risk management and collision avoidance, NASA s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel wrote in its recently released 2020 annual report.