The Sky Is Not the Limit: How Many Satellites Are Orbiting Earth?

Since the dawn of humanity, people have marveled at our moon, the Earth’s only natural satellite. But our skies forever changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik-1, the first man-made satellite. A space race soon began, and hundreds of satellites soon began traversing the skies above our heads.

How Many Satellites Are There Today?

Technically speaking, every piece of man-made material in orbit around our planet is a satellite. Usually though, most people want to know how many functioning satellites are circling the globe at the moment. While the exact count varies on any given day, there are well over 1,000 man-made satellites currently in orbit.

Unfortunately, the early space pioneers did not realize that malfunctioning satellites, lost tools, and other bits of “space junk” would themselves become “satellites”, remaining in orbit indefinitely. As the skies above our heads continue to get more and more crowded, the risk of collisions is becoming ever greater. Because of this, the United States Air Force (Space Command) is now building a $1.6 billion monitoring system called Space Fence to track the more than 40,000 man-made objects currently circling the heavens.

Who Owns These Satellites?

Thanks to low-cost private satellite launch providers, more and more entities are launching satellites into space. Originally, only the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union owned and operated all of the satellites circling the planet above us. Today, more than a dozen countries have satellites in orbit, but the vast majority of satellites in operation now are owned and operated by commercial companies.

One very special satellite, the International Space Station, is home to a multinational team of astronaut scientists, who live and work high above us in orbit in order to conduct research and lead humanity towards future explorations of the stars.

What Happens When a Satellite Stops Working?

Whether due to a collision, an unknown malfunction, or when the internal power supply becomes drained, a man-made satellite will stop responding to ground-based commands. Although still considered a satellite, a non-functioning man-made object in orbit is then re-classified as space junk, and is tracked by the U.S. Air Force Space Command, European Space Agency, Russian Space Agency, and other government space programs, as the broken satellite now poses a severe danger to the International Space Station and the more than 1,000 functioning satellites still in orbit.

Because the danger of functioning satellites with space junk is so high, the US Air Force Space Command has a data-sharing agreement in place with the governments of Australia, Britain, South Korea, France, Canada, China, and Italy. By using a vast network of radar systems and other tracking devices, satellite operators can be warned in advance of an impending collision, giving them time to reposition their satellite.

Unfortunately, sometimes these warnings come too late. On February 10, 2009, an American satellite and a Russian satellite crashed into one another, blasting both satellites into hundreds of pieces of debris, which now must be tracked as space junk. The loss of just these two satellites was estimated to be several million dollars, highlighting the severity of the problem of non-functioning satellites.

How Much Does a Satellite Cost?

Prior to the year 2010, satellite launches were entirely dependent on government space programs, particularly those of the United States and the former Soviet Union. Thanks to breakthrough innovations in the private sector, including Elon Musk’s Space X corporation, private rocket operators have dramatically undercut the price of launching a satellite into space.

While each satellite launch has varied costs due to weight, launch window availability, and other factors, the price of launching a satellite today is around $2,500 per pound. While that may sound like a lot, it is roughly 10 times cheaper than in the era when only legacy government space programs could launch commercial satellites into orbit.

What Do Satellites Do?

Because satellites are so high up above us, they can effectively “look” down on a vast swathe of the Earth. This makes satellites particularly useful for observational purposes, whether military, scientific, or to keep track of millions of objects.

Other satellites function as communication relay devices, receiving information uploaded to them and then re-broadcasting it down to various points on Earth. Because of the vast differences involved, satellites use special radio frequencies and communication technologies. Some satellites use a VSAT internet Modem, a highly-advanced version of the modems that computers once used to communicate with one another over telephone lines.

A few satellites are pointed away from the Earth, and are used as telescopes and other scientific instruments to study the stars, our sun, and other celestial objects.

Track Satellites at Home

If you want to get a closer look at all of the satellites orbiting our planet, NASA now has an interactive satellite viewer available on their website. Simply click, zoom, and watch as the heavenly bodies rapidly circle high above our heads.