There are 7,702 active satellites, 6,470 (84%) are in LEO.
3,135 of these satellites are used for communications.
1,052 are used for Earth Observation.
383 are used for technological development.
154 for navigation.
108 for space science.
SpaceX, OneWeb, and Planet Labs lead with the most satellites orbiting earth, according to 2021 numbers.
The cost of payloads has decreased from $30,000 per pound of payload (NASA’s space Shuttle) to $1,200 per pound of payload (Falcon 9). SpaceX’s heaviest payload yet weighed satellites at 685 lbs.
This is because the private space industry operates with looser rules than government. Satellite companies can choose their payload size and method of delivering satellites much easier today than they could when NASA was in control. What this really means is, the market can find an equilibrium because there are more options to go to space. Supply is no longer government-constrained. Reusable rockets have also reduced launch costs drastically. A Deloitte report mentions “Falcon Heavy – the world’s most powerful operational rocket – still manages to cost less than 43% of its primary competitor.”
Farmers and agricultural companies are using satellites to see how moist their soil is across large fields.
Amount of orbital debris has estimated at: 36,500 objects larger than 10 cm (small melon), 1 million objects between 1-10 cm (marble to bottle of water), and 130 million objects between 1mm to 1cm (grain of sand or pea).
Bold is hardest to track and large enough to cause significant damage to satellites.
Many of the prevention measures for debris are policy and compliance based. The commission first adopted orbital debris assessment in 2004 and companies are required to submit their plan for debris mitigation in their official FCC filing.
On the technology side, Starfish Space is building technology to deorbit space vehicles. Obruta is using a tethered-net removal technology to monitor and eliminate debris.
Interference is extremely common. A survey by the Satcoms Innovation Group found that 93% of satellite operators report interference once a year. 17% see interference in their day-to-day operations.
Multiple astronomers in an article by The Guardian use the word threat to describe the impact of satellites on ground-based astronomy. Lights on satellites cause light reflections that interfere with NASA’s satellites which means telescope images have streaks and can’t properly capture images.