SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission was the first in a new shared participation program that SpaceX announced in 2019. The company then said it would dedicate “regular” launches of its Falcon 9 battlehorse rocket to transporting large batches of small satellites or “smallsats”. “instead of focusing on a large primary payload.
Typically, small satellites reach orbit by scoring along with larger, more expensive satellites, and the waiting list can be long and unpredictable. But there has been a big boost in the launch industry to directly cater to the expanding small business market. Dozens of new rocket companies promise to build small rockets that can provide quick and easy launches for the little ones. Two of these companies, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, have successfully sent their reduced rockets into orbit and have begun commercial operations.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are much larger than the Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit rockets, and are often used to launch heavy communications or spy satellites or Dragon spacecraft, carrying astronauts and cargo to and from the Earth. ‘International Space Station.
Deciding to dedicate additional missions just to launching small batches is a first-ever venture, and it’s a sign of how much interest in the industry has grown.
Although as the number of devices in orbit grows, experts are increasingly concerned about congestion. Satellites have crashed into orbit before, and while these incidents do not pose a major threat to people on the ground, the debris from the crash can remain in orbit for years or decades.