Elon Musk’s SpaceX Breaks Record, Launches 143 Satellites In One Go Beating ISRO’s Tally Of 104 Satellites

In a major development, Elon Musk led American space sector-major SpaceX has made a world record by launching 143 satellites into space in quick succession over its Falcon 9 rocket, reports Times of India.

The mission which SpaceX has called "Transporter-1" marks a significant feat which beats the previous world record of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) whereby the Indian space sector behemoth had launched 104 satellites in a single launch in February 2017.

Under Transporter-1, Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Carnival at 8.31pm IST and placed 143 commercial and Government satellites into space in a total of about 90 minutes.

The satellites placed into space include CubeSats, microsats and 10 Starlink satellites. The mission started to deploy satellites into place after about 30 minutes of lift-off.

SpaceX carried out the mission as a first under its SmallSat RideShare Program which enables small-satellite customers to book a ride to the orbit with SpaceX. The company is said to have charged a very low fee of $15,000 per kilogram for each satellite to be lifted to the polar sun-synchronous orbit.