SpaceX once again distinguished itself this Sunday with an ambitious carpooling mission, hoisting no less than 143 small satellites into orbit. This is a new record for a single rocket. The booster then returned to land successfully at sea.
The year is off to a strong start at SpaceX. After launching a first batch of Starlink satellites from Florida on January 21, reusing one of its boosters for the eighth time, the company played taxis this Sunday, successfully delivering the largest number of payloads ever released by a single rocket – 143 satellites – on its Transporter-1 rideshare mission.
The company announced in 2019 that it would offer flights on its Falcon 9 rockets at certain intervals throughout the year for "only" one million dollars per launch , thus allowing small businesses to access space at a lower cost. These flights can be booked through a dedicated website created by SpaceX.
The Falcon 9 took off this Sunday morning at 5 p.m. (French time) from Cape Canaveral. This was the fifth flight of booster B1058. The latter made his mark for the first time in May 2020 to propel the two NASA astronauts – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – into space, towards the ISS.
Following a successful takeoff, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to land at sea on its recovery barge named Of Course I Still Love You , marking the 73rd successful recovery of a SpaceX booster since 2015.
Launching so many satellites at once was no easy task for SpaceX, as they had to deploy in a timed sequence to avoid possible collisions. The first 48 satellites, signed by Earth observation company Planet, were the first to be released into space, just under 59 minutes after liftoff.
Note that among the 143 satellites deployed in space were ten other Starlink satellites delivered to polar orbit for the first time. This type of orbit allows satellites to fly over the poles of the planet. In this way, SpaceX will be able to provide internet coverage to customers in Alaska. The latter were deployed 1 hour and 31 minutes after takeoff.
SpaceX's next mission is another Starlink mission, which could lift off as soon as next week. The company has also planned two more taxi missions for 2021 – one as early as June and another scheduled for December.
