SpaceX Sets Record by Launching 143 Satellites on One Rocket

Cape Canaveral, Fla., January 24, 2021--At 10:00 a.m. US EST, SpaceX 's Falcon 9 rocked successfully launched its first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare  mission, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.On board  the Falcon 9 rocket  were 133 commercial and government spacecraft (including CubeSats, microsats, and orbital transfer vehicles) and 10 Starlink satellites – the most spacecraft ever deployed on a single mission.

The Starlink satellites aboard this mission were the first in the constellation to deploy to a polar orbit. 

The mission, dubbed Transporter-1, carried  more than 130 satellites for a variety of customers including Planet, which operates a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites, and ICEYE, which develops small radar satellites for monitoring ice and tracking floods. The previous record for the most satellites sent to space in one trip was held by PSLV, an Indian rocket, that carried 104 satellites in a 2017 launch.

Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously supported launch of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission, the ANASIS-II mission, a Starlink mission, and launch of Dragon’s 21st cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.