Satellite Constellations

SpaceX

Starlink is SpaceX's low Earth orbit broadband network, the largest satellite constellation ever built. It flies in shells at inclinations from 43 to 97 degrees near 550 km altitude, and newer V2 Mini spacecraft add direct-to-cell service. SpaceX launches Starlink batches on the Falcon 9 and, increasingly, Starship.

9,926 in orbit

SpaceX

Starshield is the government and national-security variant of the Starlink platform, built by SpaceX for US agencies. The spacecraft are cataloged under generic USA designations rather than Starlink names, so they are grouped here by their bus type.

OneWeb

OneWeb operates a low Earth orbit broadband constellation in near-polar orbits around 1,200 km. The network is now part of Eutelsat Group and targets enterprise, government, and maritime connectivity rather than direct consumer service.

654 in orbit

Kuiper Systems

Project Kuiper is Amazon's low Earth orbit broadband constellation, a direct competitor to Starlink. Production satellites began reaching orbit in 2025 across shells near 590 to 630 km, launched on Atlas V, Vulcan, and other vehicles.

210 in orbit

Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology

Qianfan, also called the Thousand Sails or G60 Starlink constellation, is a Chinese low Earth orbit broadband network. It began deploying in 2024 and is planned to reach many thousands of satellites.

108 in orbit

China Satellite Network Group

Guowang is China's national low Earth orbit broadband constellation, operated by the state-owned China Satellite Network Group. It is one of two large Chinese megaconstellations alongside Qianfan.

Iridium Communications

Iridium runs a cross-linked low Earth orbit constellation that provides voice and data coverage over the entire planet, including the poles. The current Iridium NEXT satellites replaced the original 1990s fleet and host secondary payloads for aircraft and ship tracking.

228 in orbit

Globalstar

Globalstar operates a low Earth orbit satellite phone and data network. Its capacity also backs emergency messaging features on consumer devices.

88 in orbit

Orbcomm

Orbcomm runs a low Earth orbit constellation for machine-to-machine messaging and asset tracking, one of the earliest commercial data relay networks.

66 in orbit

Planet Labs

Flock is Planet Labs' fleet of Dove cubesats that image the entire landmass of Earth every day at medium resolution. Successive Flock generations have made it one of the most numerous Earth-observation constellations ever flown.

128 in orbit

Planet Labs

SkySat is Planet Labs' high-resolution imaging constellation, acquired from Google. The satellites capture sub-meter imagery and video and complement the wide-area coverage of the Dove fleet.

15 in orbit

Spire Global

Lemur is Spire Global's cubesat constellation. The satellites collect GPS radio-occultation weather data and track ships and aircraft through their AIS and ADS-B signals.

80 in orbit

Swarm Technologies

SpaceBEE satellites make up Swarm Technologies' low-data-rate Internet of Things network. Each spacecraft is a 0.25U picosatellite, among the smallest cataloged objects, and Swarm is now owned by SpaceX.

ICEYE

ICEYE operates a constellation of small synthetic-aperture radar satellites that image through cloud and darkness. The Finnish company serves flood monitoring, insurance, and defense customers.

Capella Space

Capella Space flies a constellation of high-resolution synthetic-aperture radar satellites for commercial and government imaging, delivering data day or night and through weather.

Umbra

Umbra builds and operates compact synthetic-aperture radar satellites that reach some of the highest commercial imaging resolutions available.

People's Republic of China

Yaogan is a broad series of Chinese remote-sensing satellites. The program spans optical, radar, and electronic-intelligence spacecraft, often flying in clustered triplets in low Earth orbit.

Chang Guang Satellite Technology

Jilin-1 is China's largest commercial Earth-observation constellation, operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology. It provides high-resolution optical imagery and video from low Earth orbit.

US Space Force

The Global Positioning System is the US satellite navigation constellation, operated by the Space Force from medium Earth orbit near 20,200 km. Successive Navstar blocks have kept about 30 satellites in service since the 1990s.

Roscosmos

GLONASS is Russia's satellite navigation constellation, the counterpart to GPS. Its Uragan-series spacecraft operate in three medium Earth orbit planes, and the satellites are usually cataloged under generic Cosmos designations.

European Union

Galileo is the European Union's civil satellite navigation system, run through the EU Agency for the Space Programme and ESA. Its satellites orbit in medium Earth orbit and provide global positioning independent of GPS and GLONASS.

People's Republic of China

BeiDou is China's satellite navigation system. The completed third-generation constellation mixes medium Earth, inclined geosynchronous, and geostationary orbits to give global coverage with regional enhancements over Asia.

Intelsat

Intelsat operates one of the oldest and largest geostationary communications fleets, carrying television, broadband, and government traffic. The company traces its lineage to the original international satellite consortium of the 1960s.

SES

O3b is SES's medium Earth orbit broadband constellation, flying near 8,000 km to deliver lower-latency connectivity than traditional geostationary satellites. The newer O3b mPOWER spacecraft expand its capacity.

Gonets Satellite Systems

Gonets is a Russian low Earth orbit store-and-forward messaging constellation, the civil counterpart to the military Strela system it descends from.

Russian Ministry of Defense

Strela is a family of Soviet and Russian low Earth orbit military store-and-forward communications satellites. Early Strela-1 spacecraft launched many at a time, and the line led to the civil Gonets system.

USSR / Russia

Molniya satellites gave the Soviet Union communications coverage over its high-latitude territory using highly elliptical orbits. The 12-hour Molniya orbit that carries them is named after the program.

NASA

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is NASA's network of geostationary relay spacecraft. It carries communications between low-orbiting missions, including the International Space Station, and the ground.

NOAA

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites are NOAA's weather-watching spacecraft. From fixed positions over the Americas they provide the continuous imagery used in daily forecasting and storm tracking.

US Space Force

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program is the long-running US military weather constellation in sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. Much of its imagery has also supported civilian and scientific use.

Roscosmos

Meteor is the Soviet and Russian series of polar-orbiting weather satellites, flown since the 1960s. Successive generations have carried imagers and sounders for operational meteorology.

US Navy

Transit was the first operational satellite navigation system, built for the US Navy to fix the positions of ships and submarines. It served from the 1960s until GPS superseded it, and pioneered the Doppler navigation later refined by modern systems.