Space AtlasData and methods
Every number on Space Atlas is computed from public catalogs, rebuilt every day, and dated. This page says where each one comes from and what it counts. Current data: Oct 15, 2026.
Sources
Space Atlas combines four public sources, each credited where its numbers appear.
| Source | What it provides | Refreshed |
|---|---|---|
| CelesTrak SATCAT | Every cataloged object: name, owner, launch and reentry dates, orbit, operational status | Daily (current: Oct 15, 2026) |
| CelesTrak GP element sets | Current orbits that place the live satellites in the 3D atlas and predict passes | Daily |
| GCAT, Jonathan McDowell (CC BY 4.0) | Masses, sizes, purposes, the launch that carried each object, constellation status letters | As published (current: Oct 15, 2026) |
| McDowell's Starlink statistics | Starlink satellites by stage: operational orbit, raising, lowered, being deorbited, failed | As published (current: Oct 13, 2026) |
Each object also links to the launch that carried it on Flight Atlas, the sister site covering every rocket launch since 1957, and the upcoming-launch lists come from The Space Devs' Launch Library 2.
What each number counts
Space Atlas always says which of these a number is.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Active satellite | A payload in orbit that CelesTrak lists as operational, partially operational, backup, spare or on an extended mission (status + P B S X), CelesTrak's own definition. |
| Satellite in orbit | Any payload still in Earth orbit, working or not. |
| Rocket body | A spent upper stage or booster that reached orbit. |
| Intact object | A satellite or a rocket body: everything except debris. |
| Tracked debris | Cataloged fragments and loose hardware, roughly 10 cm and larger in low orbit. |
| In operational orbit | A constellation satellite flying in its assigned shell, by McDowell's status letters. The other stages: raising orbit or moving into place, lowered out of the constellation, being deorbited, failed. |
| Country | The owner recorded in the SATCAT. An international organization (ESA, EUMETSAT, Intelsat...) counts on its own; Unknown means no owner recorded yet. |
| Constellation | Membership by catalog name: STARLINK, ONEWEB, KUIPER (Amazon Leo), QIANFAN, HULIANWANG DIGUI or GUOWANG (Guowang), NAVSTAR or GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, IRIDIUM. |
| Mass in orbit | GCAT dry mass of every satellite and rocket body in orbit (launch mass where no dry mass is known). Dry mass leaves out the propellant a stage burned after reaching orbit. |
| Orbit class | LEO: apogee below 2,000 km. GEO: period within two hours of a sidereal day. HEO: eccentricity 0.25 or more. MEO: everything else. |
How fresh the data is
The catalog is downloaded and the whole site rebuilt every day, usually in the morning (UTC). Every page prints the date of the data it shows. Two lags are worth knowing. CelesTrak can take a week or more to catalog a new launch, so the daily recap stays 10 days behind to show complete days only. And GCAT's public file adds new launches weeks later, so constellation stages count fresh satellites as not yet classified until it catches up (Starlink reads McDowell's current statistics instead).
What is left out
108 satellites (58 of them active) and 54 rocket bodies are cataloged as in orbit without a published orbit, mostly classified missions. The atlas cannot place them, so they are not in the counts. 14 spacecraft docked to a station or another satellite (station modules, visiting crew and cargo ships) fly as part of their host and are not counted separately. Objects that left Earth orbit (lunar and planetary missions) are outside the catalog this site maps.
Why other counts differ
Most disagreements between trackers are about definitions, not data: active satellites, satellites in orbit, intact objects and all tracked objects are four different numbers, and the gap between them is thousands. Starlink is the clearest case: satellites in orbit, satellites marked operational and satellites in their operational shells differ by more than a thousand, because hundreds are always on their way up or down. Dates matter too, since launches add dozens of satellites a week. Space Atlas names the definition and the date beside every figure, so any number here can be checked against its source.
Credit and reuse
The numbers change every day, so a reference needs the page and the date of the data, for example: Space Atlas, "Satellites in orbit", www.spaceatlas.tech/how-many-satellites-in-orbit, data as of Oct 15, 2026.
Figures, tables and charts are free to reuse, including in commercial publications, with that credit and a link where the medium allows (CC BY 4.0). Every chart has a copy button and carries the site name inside the image. When a figure comes from GCAT or Jonathan McDowell's statistics, the page says so; please keep that credit too.
Press and corrections
Questions, data requests and corrections: apostructura@gmail.com. If a number looks wrong, send the page and what you expected; fixes go into the next daily rebuild.