Satellites

As of March 6, 2019, information was available about 38 nations that deployed and operated 465 spacecraft during 2018. The number of nations operating spacecraft grew 10% from . . .

Infrastructure: Space Infrastructure

Space infrastructure, like its terrestrial counterpart, is an invisible backbone for services used by people all over the world. Like terrestrial infrastructure, space infrastructure is increasingly relied upon for convenience, services, and . . .

2017 – Satellite Overview – Snapshot

The year 2017 was a significant one for spacecraft, with a record-setting 443 satellites deployed. This was a 96% increase from 2016 and easily broke the previous . . .

2016 – Military Satellites – Snapshot

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2016 – Satellite Orbits – Snapshot

As in previous years, the most used orbit type is l##. In 2016, ##% of the ### spacecraft launched or deployed around the Earth were inserted into ##. The effective range of this type of…

2016 – Satellite Overview – Snapshot

Traditional satellite missions, such as Earth observation, communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), continued dominating the global space industry, but other missions are coming forward. Air traffic control and ship traffic monitoring satellites are increasing as more governments and organizations recognize the usefulness of these missions. Radio occultation using…

Ground Networks

Ground stations serve as the links between Earth and space, tying together terrestrial and space infrastructure. They track satellites and spacecraft, as well as communicate with and control satellites, probes, crewed space vessels, and space stations.

How the Space Foundation characterizes satellite orbits

This is a description of the Space Foundation methodology for classifying different satellite orbits with Earth at their focus.

Defining the Satellite Intelligence Collection disciplines.

Definitions of the various intelligence disciplines for an understanding of how they may apply to satellite collection operations.

2015 – Satellite Overview – Snapshot

Satellites include a wide variety of systems performing an even wider range of missions from their different orbits. In 2015, launch operators attempted to place 262 spacecraft into orbit (including both satellites and other types of payloads), a decrease of 11% from 296 spacecraft in 2014.