Most satellites launched on a single rocket

The most satellites placed into orbit by a single rocket is 143, achieved by SpaceX (USA). This record payload was carried by the company's Transporter-1 mission, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 24 January 2021.

The Transporter-1 flight is the first of many planned missions in SpaceX's Smallsat Rideshare Program, which has been described as "carpooling in space". It is designed to offer a cheap ride to space for operators of small satellite payloads (which SpaceX define as less than 830 kg). Under this program, SpaceX commits to making a certain number of regularly scheduled launches to different orbits every year, so customers can book their satellite onto one of these scheduled launches rather than chartering a flight themselves. This approach allows SpaceX to offer launch prices of as little as $2.5 m for a 150 kg payload.

This program was introduced to capitalize on the growing smallsat market. The miniaturization of satellite hardware means that many missions (commercial Earth-observation, academic research, etc.) can now be accomplished with tiny satellites the size of a shoebox or even a soda can. The SpaceX Falcon 9 – with its 13 m by 5.2 m payload fairing and 22.8-tonne-to-LEO lift capacity – can carry such missions into space at extremely low prices, provided enough organizations can be tempted to sign up.

The satellites that flew on Transporter-1 include 48 "SuperDove" Earth-imaging satellites from Planet (USA), 17 communications satellites for Kepler (CAN) and dozens of micro-satellites packaged in deployers operated by Exolaunch (DEU) and Nanoracks (USA). The fairing also contains 10 SpaceX Starlink satellites. Smallsat Rideshare Program missions are capable of carrying many more satellites than were flown on this mission – several slots were either empty or occupied by mass simulators (weights designed to keep things in balance in the absence of a payload).