Crowded Skies: The Number of Orbital Objects is Large and Growing

Sputnik was launched in 1957, Earth orbit was a lonely place. That satellite didn’t remain in space very long. It reentered the atmosphere just three months after launch, and the booster that place it in orbit only remained in in space for two months,

Today, the spacescape is very different. According to The Union of Concerned Scientists satellite database, there were 4,084 operational satellites orbiting the Earth, with the bulk of those in Low Earth Orbit as of May 1, 2021, the date of the last database update. And that doesn’t count the number of satellites that have reached the end of their lifespans. According to the General Catalogue of Artificial Space Objects, when you add up all of the operational and inoperational satellites, plus expended boosters and other debris, there are more than 23,000 objects orbiting the Earth the size of a softball or larger.

https://youtu.be/accMQMhdqcw

And that number is likely only going to grow. Think about the mega-constellations of satellites planned by SpaceX for the Starlink service, OneWeb’s satellite internet service and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. In fact, a recent report from Grand View Research indicates that the global Satellite Communications market is expected to grow to $137.63 billion by 2028 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 9.8%.

Several factors account for that forecast, including the growing adoption rate of small satellites in the defense industry for applications such as geospace and atmospheric research, tactical communication, and medium resolution imagery.