Musk's SpaceX Rocket-Pooling Hauls Record 143 Satellites Into Space

Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. made history Sunday after launching its Falcon 9 rocket that carried a record 143 craft into space.

The Transporter-1 mission was part of SpaceX's small-satellite rideshare program which offers satellites as small as a mailbox or as heavy as 200 kilograms a ride into space for $1 million a pop.

The program provides "a competitive rideshare option" for satellites to orbit at low cost, according to Bryce Space & Technology senior analyst Phil Smith.

Sunday's launch broke an earlier record of 104 satellites carried by a single rocket. That was held by India's Space Research Organization polar satellite launch vehicle rocket in February 2017.

Among the owners of the satellites carried by the Falcon 9 are Nanoracks LLC, Capella Space, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U.S. and the University of South Florida Institute of Applied Engineering.

SpaceX flew 10 of its own Starlink broadband satellites.

The mission was scheduled for launch last month but several problems caused delays. Earlier this month, two Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency satellites were damaged at a processing zone - pushing back the launch. Then weather forced the launch until Sunday.

On Sunday, photos of work on the first super heavy prototype for the Starship project circulated on social media.

The photos show a section of four steel rings inside SpaceX's high bay. Industry experts said they were to support stacking and integrating for super heavy boosters.

The Starship system is in two stages. The first stage is super heavy and the second is called Starship. Musk predicts the first unmanned Starship could reach Mars by 2024.