https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55775977
SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched
A new world record has been set for the number of satellites sent to space on a single rocket.
The 143 payloads, of all shapes and sizes, rode to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon rocket that launched out of Florida. The number beats the previous record of 104 satellites carried aloft by an Indian vehicle in 2017......
SpaceX itself had 10 satellites on the Falcon - the latest additions to its Starlink telecommunications mega-constellation, which is going to deliver broadband internet connections around the globe.
San Francisco's Planet company had the most satellites of all on the flight - 48. These were another batch of its SuperDove models that image the Earth's surface daily at a resolution of 3-5m. The new spacecraft take the firm's operational fleet now in orbit to more than 200.
The SuperDoves are the size of a shoebox. Many of the other payloads on the Falcon rocket were little bigger than a coffee mug, however; and some were smaller even than a paperback book.
Swarm Technologies is rolling out what it calls the SpaceBees. They're just 10cm by 10cm by 2.5cm. They'll act as telecommunications nodes to connect devices that are attached to all manner of objects on the ground, from migrating animals to shipping containers.
Some of the larger items on the Falcon rocket were suitcase-sized. Among these were several radar satellites. Radar has been one of the major beneficiaries of the revolution in componentry.
Traditionally, radar satellites were big, multi-tonne objects that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fly, which essentially meant only the military or major space agencies could afford to operate them. But the adoption of new materials and compact "off the shelf" parts have dramatically shrunk the size (to under 100kg) and price (a couple of million dollars) of these spacecraft.
Iceye from Finland, Capella and Umbra from the US, and iQPS of Japan all took the ride to orbit on Sunday. These start-ups are establishing constellations in the sky that will return rapid, repeat imagery of the Earth.....