Falcon 9 took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 9:56 a.m. on the Transporter-6 Special Small Satellite mission. The rocket’s first stage, making its 15th flight, landed in Landing Zone 1 at Cape Eight and a Half. minutes after starting.

The rocket’s booster stage began releasing its payload 114 into sun-synchronous orbit about an hour after takeoff; it was a process involving 82 separate deployments that took more than half an hour. SpaceX managed to verify 77 deployments in real time.

The largest single launch customer in terms of satellite count was Planet, which has 36 SuperDove imaging satellites on board. To date, Planet has launched more than 500 satellites, most of them cube satellites like SuperDoves.

Some of the other significant payloads on the Transporter-6 included:

• Six LEMUR cube satellites for Spire, which manages the weather and monitors the constellation;
• four imaging satellites for Satellogic, which slowed its group’s rollout after missing its 2022 revenue forecasts;
• four radio frequency intelligence satellites for Kleos from Luxembourg and one BRO-8 radio frequency intelligence satellite for French startup Unseenlabs;
• three Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellites for Iceye and two SAR satellites for Umbra;
• Two satellites for Lynk, which has developed a group to provide direct telephony services;
• twelve SpaceBee Internet of Things satellites for SpaceX-owned Swarm Technologies;
• Gama Alpha, the first satellite used by French company Gama to test solar sail technologies;
• Electro-Optical/Infrared Meteorological Systems (EWS) for Demonstration Cubes for US Space Systems Command

Some of the payloads aboard Transporter-6 are orbital vehicles that will then deploy satellites. These include two ION ships from D-Orbit, a second Vigoride tug from Momentus, and a first Launcher Orbiter.

Transporter-6 is the sixth in SpaceX’s series of joint small satellite missions, completing the first two Transporter missions in 2021 and three in 2022. In August, the company said it continued to see strong demand for the service, despite the rise of smaller launch vehicles that offer specialized options for launching small satellites. At the time, the company said all SpaceX Transporter missions for 2023 are full, although last-minute opportunities may arise.

2022 is the year of records

Transporter-6 was the first orbital launch around the world in 2023. This was followed by a record-breaking 2022 with 186 orbital launch attempts, 40 more than in 2021. A total of 179 launches were successful compared to 136 launches in 2021.

In the last five years, the effectiveness of orbital launches has doubled. In 2017, 86 of the 90 attempts were successful orbital launches. While the number of launches in China increased from 18 in 2017 to 61 in 2022, SpaceX, which increased from 18 in 2017 to 64 in 2022, is largely responsible for this growth.

With the exception of New Zealand, which increased from the initial Rocket Lab Electron launch in 2017 to nine in 2022, other countries have seen no change or decline in launches over the past five years. This includes Europe, which received 11 launches in 2017, from 6 launches in 2022, and Japan, which had seven launches in 2017 but only failed one Epsilon launch in 2022.

SpaceX, which made 61 launches in 2022 and nearly doubled 31 launches in 2021, will try to break another launch record in 2023. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has suggested that the company will attempt up to 100 launches by 2023. The first orbital launch includes Starship, which is expected later this year.