RNS: Elon Musk’s SpaceX set a new world record by launching 143 satellites on a single rocket on 24 January; braked the Indian space agency ISRO’s record of deploying 104 satellites in a single launch in February 2017.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 143 satellites include 10 commercial and 133 government’s CubeSats, microsats and 10 Starlink satellites launched last night. Onboard was also a spacecraft belonging to NASA, it said.
With these satellites, SpaceX aims to provide near-global broadband internet coverage all over the world by 2021.
According to sources, SpaceX offered a very low price of 15,000 dollars per kilogram for each satellite to be delivered to a polar sun-synchronous orbit.
According to the reports, Elon Musk’s SpaceX had delayed the launch of the satellites by one day due to the unfavorable weather conditions.
On January 22, 2021, Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Tesla Inc., had tweeted that launching many small satellites for a wide range of customers on January 23. He added that the company is excited about offering low-cost access to the orbit for small companies, it reported.
