SpaceX Gearing Up For Second Orbital Launch Of The Year To Deploy Smaller Satellites

​Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-led SpaceX is planning a second orbital launch of the year aboard the reusable Falcon 9 rocket later this week to transport dozens of small satellites for rideshare customers.

What Happened: Falcon 9 rocket is expected to deploy the Transporter 3 mission on Thursday at 10:25 a.m. ET.

Transporter 3 is a dedicated rideshare mission by SpaceX to low earth orbit with payloads for as low as $1 million permission, which includes up to 200 kilograms of payload mass.

Space imaging company Planet Labs Inc PL co-founder and CEO Will Marshall last week tweeted to reveal the latest Transporter mission would fly the company’s 44 small satellites. The news was first reported by Teslarati.

Excited to be launching 44 SuperDoves next week!

Here's the team with them before shipping to Florida where they'll be riding a @SpaceX to join our ~200 satellite fleet; enhancing our daily scan of 🌎!

Let's do this! @Planet (x11!) pic.twitter.com/OxKp38TzWG

— Will Marshall (@Will4Planet) January 7, 2022

See Also: Elon Musk's SpaceX Deploys 49 Starlink Satellites Using Falcon 9 Rocket

What Happened: The development comes a week after SpaceX successfully deployed 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from the launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. The reusability factor brings down costs significantly as it allows the space agency to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket.

The space company run by the billionaire entrepreneur Musk completed 31 various mission launches in 2021 and 26 in 2020.