A SpaceX rocket carried an unprecedented number of satellites into space on Sunday, setting a new record for the most spacecraft that have ever been deployed in one mission.
Dubbed Transporter-1, the mission carried 143 spacecraft into Earth's orbit including compact nano- and microsatellites from a range of different countries and corporations.
This beats the previous record of 104 satellites, which were launched during a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2017.
SpaceX's rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10 o'clock in the morning, marking the first dedicated mission of the company's SmallSat Rideshare Program.

As the name suggests, the initiative resembles a kind of UberPool for satellites, allowing different operators to hitch a ride into space on the same rocket and split the cost, rather than having to invest upwards of $60 million to charter an individual rocket. Under the SmallSat Rideshare Program, it costs only $1 million to send a 200-kilogram spacecraft into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), which houses imaging, military and weather satellites.
SpaceX aims to serve this orbit via a regular service every four months, in a bid to provide "increased access to space for small satellite operators seeking a reliable, affordable ride to orbit".
Rocket designed to be reused
The relative affordability of the programme is also linked to the design of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which was used for the mis...