SpaceX Sends Largest Launch into Orbit

Elon Musk has broken a record regarding how many satellites have been launched into space on a single rocket. SpaceX now boasts the record with the recent launch of 143 satellites on its Falcon 9 rocket, which was part of its rideshare mission, with a significant amount of the satellites on board not a part of the SpaceX Starlink constellation. Only 10 were for Musk’s Starlink constellation; others satellites were from Swarm Technologies, Kepler Communications, Spire, and NASA.

The rideshare mission that SpaceX is operating will enable many other satellite vendors to operate their satellites without the huge cost of having their own rockets. It enables companies such as Kepler Communications to utilize other companies’ resources, which reduces the initial cost of launching their satellite constellations. The payloads onboard included a range of different satellite varieties including CubeSats and nanosatellites—two different models of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for constellations that are being offered by vendors.

The aim of this launch was to place the new satellites into orbit merely 326 miles above the Earth’s equator. LEO satellites are becoming more well known for their use within IoT market segments such as Earth observation and fleet monitoring, since they offer coverage over the most rural parts of the globe where terrestrial network infrastructures are currently not available. This launch means that satellite providers are closer to being able to offer better service for their clients, and also puts them in a better position for improving their relationships with mobile network operators, which can integrate the two technologies to offer seamless connectivity.

In the ABI Research report Satellite Services in IoT: How the Use of Satellites Has Evolved for IoT (AN-5213), we forecast that by 2026 there will be 38 million IoT connections made via satellite. This will only be able to happen if there is complete coverage by satellite vendors because, without complete coverage, they are not able to offer near real-time capabilities regarding data updates for solution providers. The recent launch by SpaceX is the first of many due to take place this year, not to mention other launches that are due to take place separately from SpaceX. And though this launch focused on launching satellites from companies such as Kepler and Swarm, which offer their connectivity services for IoT market verticals, SpaceX also has launches planned for 1Q and 2Q 2021 that will include military satellites, such as SARah1 for the German military.

One of the issues that has arisen from this large launch is that not all of the information related to satellite location can be found by the relevant space traffic management parties. Data regarding where individual companies are deploying their satellites via the SpaceX Falcon 9 is not always made public to the relevant community. Without knowledge of the whereabouts of satellites, the space traffic management facilities cannot update future launchers about any disruptions to their launches, which is very problematic when considering the amount of capital required to build the satellites and then launch them into orbit.

SpaceX has evolved the market for LEO satellites, with its rideshare missions enabling many other companies to launch their own satellites, therefore increasing competitiveness within the space market. There are now several more connectivity providers available for solution providers to consider, meaning that satellite vendors are now required to really work at their pricing plans and business models to enable them to stand their ground within this market.