SpaceX Launched 143 Satellites on Single Rocket

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has created a new world record. It has launched 143 satellites on a single rocket called Falcon 9 rocket. With the new record, SpaceX has broken the record of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) that has deployed 104 satellites on a single launch in February 2017. For the purpose of delivering these satellites to a polar sun-synchronous orbit, Space X charges a price of 15,000 dollars per kilogram for each satellite.

Which satellites were launched?

• The 143 satellites that were launched include the commercial and government satellites namely the CubeSats, microsats and 10 Starlink satellites.
• A spacecraft of Nasa was also launched.

Aim of the launch

SpaceX has launched these satellites with the aim of providing the near-global broadband internet coverage all across the world by the end of 2021.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

It is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company. It has been headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The agency was founded in the year 2002 by Elon Musk. The agency was established with the goal to reduce the space transportation costs in order to enable the colonization of Mars. It is the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket of the world that has reached to the orbit by the launch of Falcon 1 in 2008.

Falcon 9 rocket

This rocket is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle. It has been designed and manufactured by SpaceX.  The launcher uses cryogenic liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) as propellants. The name has been derived from the fictional Star Wars spacecraft, the Millennium Falcon.

Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO)

It is also called as the heliosynchronous orbit. This is a polar orbit around a planet. In the orbit, satellite passes over any given point of the planet’s surface at the same local mean solar time.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2021