Satellites in orbit, uses and countries

We can classify satellites according to several criteria. The main thing is to do it by type Because each one occupies his place in space with a function. There are many different types of satellites and they are used in all regions today. For example, navigation satellites that allow us technologies such as GPS or GLONASS. Communication satellites or meteorological satellites that are used to know and record the Earth’s climate or weather. In addition, there are many other things such as reconnaissance used by intelligence or military organizations, satellites used as space weapons …

In addition, they can also differ in their orbit Depending on whether it is in low, medium or geostationary orbit. Most of them are part of LEO or LEO, what does this mean? It is an orbit located 200 and 2000 kilometers from the surface of the Earth. Most satellites are located in this orbit, although communication satellites are generally those in others such as geostationary orbit, for example.

The first satellites

The first satellite in orbit was Sputnik, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome as part of The space program of the Soviet Union. It was launched on October 4, 1957 and had a diameter of about 58 cm and a weight of about 80 kg. The first version took 98 minutes to orbit the Earth and its main task was to obtain information about the upper layers of the atmosphere. But she was not the only one, and the Sputnik program of the USSR included several launches in total.

The second was Sputnik 2 carrying a bitch in time to make it the first object to enter orbit. It was launched on November 3, 1959 and was The first spacecraft capable of transporting biological materials. He did this in a capsule four meters high, two meters in diameter and with several compartments, among which was the enclosed cabin where the animal traveled. After this launch, many came from 1958 to 1961, although the first three are generally cited as the most important in history.

The United States took a little longer to launch the first communications satellite and did so in 1960. Echo 1 was launched on August 12, 1960.

How many satellites are there

From United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (an organization part of the United Nations based in Austria) We can check how many satellites there are at any given moment, but also what they are, to which country they are from or what their status is, whether they are in orbit or not at the time of the query … It is a database It’s freely accessible where we can filter by year, we can choose to see where it’s been sent from, which countries it’s sent from, whether it’s in orbit, etc.

There are currently about 8000 satellites in orbit plus about 4000 satellites that are no longer in orbit but have been collected in the updated database that you can refer to at United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

Why are there so many? Satellites in orbit have grown rapidly in recent years for an obvious reason: they have become cheaper to launch. The cost of launching these satellites has decreased and not only countries are responsible for doing this, but private companies have a large number of them, as is the case with SpaceX with Starlink. The increasing number of them has advantages at the level Improvement in many services But it’s also a common concern when it comes to managing traffic and space debris, as we’ll explain later. In fact, There are more than 4,000 satellites currently inactive And they’ve already become an accumulated space junk.

by countries

Among the countries with the largest number of satellites in orbit, we find some such as France (with about 164) or others such as Germany with about a hundred, for example. India also has 124 satellites at the time of writing this article…although the countries or regions with the largest number of satellites in orbit are China (with more than 700) plus other countries such as Russia (about 3600) and the United States with about 5500 in orbit. Thanks to this database we can find out Spain It has 29 satellites in total. The last missile launched in July 2021 is the NEPTUNE satellite launched to meet maritime security challenges. But it is not the only one and from UNOOSA.org we can consult all the satellites in Spain and the vast majority of them are currently in orbit.

We simply have to use the webpage filter linked in the previous paragraphs and We will be able to find out which countries have satellites in orbit but also how many and what their mission is in space.

Satellites and companies

Not only did governments take it upon themselves to launch satellites today, but Lower costs involved in putting them into orbit Many private companies have made it do this. This is the case of SpaceX as the most famous but it is not the only case and there are others such as OneWeb, StarNet or Amazon. In total, these companies plan to launch more than 100,000 satellites in the next few years.

The most well-known case is that of Starlink, a group of satellites launched to deliver high-speed internet around the world, at speeds of up to 1Gbps with a latency of 25ms. Starlink intends to even reach isolated areas Or areas that have experienced natural disasters, but it is also an advantage over coverage by plane or ship. The goal of the project is to have about 12,000 satellites in the 1920s.

Problems

Having a lot of satellites in orbit has many advantages, but not all of them are, there are also problems. One of the main problems that satellites generate in orbit is the space debris that is generated which can prevent the launch of new rockets. Space debris includes all kinds of objects located in space, in Earth’s orbit, that do not have a specific useful function. that by saying, All kinds of debris caused by fragmentation But also ships that don’t run, it’s launch vehicles that no longer perform a function, etc. In addition, no solution has been found to clean up this mess and it has become a concern because finding a remedy is very expensive and complicated.

But it is not the only problem and there is another one: the residue it causes Multiple accidents. Traffic is not easy to manage with thousands of satellites in orbit and there are over 128 million debris currently circulating in space. Over time, there are more accidents and this leads to more debris in orbit, increasing the chances that the collision will lead to a chain effect.