Pretty wild to think that over a third of all the satellites orbiting Earth belong to one private company. Space used to feel like the domain of governments and sci-fi
Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
31–40 of 118 posts
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#32It's incredible how many satellites Space X have launched It's also surprising from a layman's perspective the "freedom" to launch rockets into space without necessarily needing permission, the originating country of course needs to approve it but none else
Yeah, it's kind of mind-blowing how much the space game has shifted from international diplomacy to private enterprise with a launch schedule
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#33It's incredible how many satellites Space X have launched It's also surprising from a layman's perspective the "freedom" to launch rockets into space without necessarily needing permission, the originating country of course needs to approve it but none else
There are only like half a dozen countries capable of doing orbital launches. That number is smaller than those nuclear capable.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#34It's interesting that the "E" in GEO, LEO, MEO, HEO is short for three different things: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Ty...
LEO is Low Earth Orbit MEO is Medium Earth Orbit The E is short for the same thing in this case. GEO for Geostationary and HEO for High-Eccentricity are interesting, though.
MEO is Middle Earth Orbit. We have to keep an eye on what Gandalf is up to.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#35> "Earth has 4550 satellites in orbit" Rapidly obsoleted information. SpaceX alone has > 7500 satellites in orbit. It added 2,300+ satellites in the one year period ending Jun 2025.
This really isn't all that much if you pause to consider it. For example. Lets take the larger possible number of 7500 plus 2,300 plus the 4,550 satellites noted up to 2021. That's a total of just under 15,000 satellites. Most of those are fairly small objects, at the most about the size of a typical mini-van, with most being quite a bit smaller than that. Now, all of this is spread over a three-dimensional topograph…
But apart from all the other stuff you mention, you’re missing an important point: these things move. And unless all objects are synchronized (which they are not) they occupy a whole orbit, not only their actual volume. If two orbits intersect, the objects occupying those will eventually collide.
Therefore, they occupy much more volume.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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The only countries even capable of enforcing launch bans stand to gain nothing from them because it just makes launching their own payloads more difficult. There's like ~10 or so countries who are readily launch capable and even less with the military capability to put any pressure to stop foreign launches. Who's going to regulate? Regulation only works when someone has the power to enforce them. Right now the people…
Unfortunately, there's no real way to regulate this. I used to worry about space junk and companies polluting space, but now I'm more concerned about what's inside those satellites. With no regulations in place, they can put pretty much anything up there.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few of those satellites had nuclear weapons inside (or maybe that's just me being paranoid.) Still, having satellites that can take out other satellites during a conflict is definitely a possibility. Which brings me back to my original concern: space junk. The last thing we need is a graveyard of satellites floating above our heads.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
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The only countries even capable of enforcing launch bans stand to gain nothing from them because it just makes launching their own payloads more difficult. There's like ~10 or so countries who are readily launch capable and even less with the military capability to put any pressure to stop foreign launches. Who's going to regulate? Regulation only works when someone has the power to enforce them. Right now the people…
International cooperation can still work even though there is very rarely a realistic prospect of enforcement. No one is going to war to enforce WTO rulings or nuclear non-proliferation treaties, for example.
It's true that when things get really hairy international law tends to fall by the wayside, eg countries leaving the Land Mine Ban Treaty now that it seems possible they may actually have to deal with a foreign invader on their soil. But they can still be effective at regulating states' behaviour in more peaceful times, which is still useful.
But it does require the major powers to be willing (i) to talk to each other, and (ii) to think about the world beyond their own borders, which means it's unlikely to happen given the current leadership in certain of the big space-going nations.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
LEO is Low Earth Orbit MEO is Medium Earth Orbit The E is short for the same thing in this case. GEO for Geostationary and HEO for High-Eccentricity are interesting, though.
MEO is Middle Earth Orbit. We have to keep an eye on what Gandalf is up to.
That orbit has only really been possible since the sinking of Numenor. Better make use of it now that we can.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#39It's interesting that the "E" in GEO, LEO, MEO, HEO is short for three different things: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Ty...
It looks like (if I've parsed right) every one of them stands for "Earth", except that HEO alone can also be overloaded three ways (high-earth, highly-elliptical, and highly-eccentric). This is unimportant, but: a site:nasa.gov search shows all three "HEO" acronyms in common use, there; and even Wikipedia abbreviates it inconsistently across entries[0-2]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Earth_orbit ( "A medium E…
The phrase "highly elliptical" is one where I know exactly what they mean but the more I think about it the more wrong it seems. It should be "Highly eccentric orbit".
All shapes which satisfy {(x,y)| x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 = 1} for fixed values of a,b in R are elliptical. Something is either elliptical or not - it's not a matter of degree. A circle is just as elliptical as a more eccentric ellipse in the same way that a square is just as rectangular as a more elongated rectangle.
Re: Every satellite orbiting earth and who owns them (2023)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
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The only countries even capable of enforcing launch bans stand to gain nothing from them because it just makes launching their own payloads more difficult. There's like ~10 or so countries who are readily launch capable and even less with the military capability to put any pressure to stop foreign launches. Who's going to regulate? Regulation only works when someone has the power to enforce them. Right now the people…
> Regulation only works when someone has the power to enforce them.
And this is why we cannot have nice things