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Mass in orbit

As of Oct 15, 2026, about 15,151 metric tons of satellites and spent rocket stages are orbiting Earth. Satellites make up 11,200 metric tons (74%) and rocket bodies 3,951.

Satellites have outweighed the stages that launched them every year since 1997, and since 2015 the satellite mass in orbit has grown about 8 tons for every ton added in rocket stages.

Data as of Oct 15, 2026 · CelesTrak SATCAT (what is in orbit), GCAT by Jonathan McDowell (dry masses) · Rebuilt every day · Methods

15,151 t
Hardware in orbit
Dry masses, known for 96% of the objects.
11,200 t
Satellites
74% of the mass in orbit.
3,951 t
Rocket bodies
Spent upper stages and boosters.
9,758 t
In low Earth orbit
Below 2,000 km, where most satellites fly.

Satellites now carry the weight

In the first decades of spaceflight, spent stages and satellites weighed about the same, because most upper stages stayed in orbit after delivery. Many modern stages are brought back down, so what accumulates in orbit now is mostly working spacecraft: satellite mass in orbit has grown 3.3 times since 2015, far faster than rocket-stage mass.

Satellites versus rocket bodies by mass, 1957 to today
Metric tons still in orbit at each year's end, stacked by type. Dry masses.
05k10k15k20k1960198020002020Satellites: 11,200 in orbit todaySatellites · 11,200Rocket bodies: 3,951 in orbit todayRocket bodies · 3,…
11,200 metric tons of satellites and 3,951 of rocket bodies in 2026.Source: CelesTrak SATCAT; dry masses from GCAT (J. McDowell, CC BY 4.0), via Space Atlas.

Where the mass sits

Most of the mass is in low orbit, but the geosynchronous ring holds 2,902 metric tons across 1,702 objects: its communications satellites are among the heaviest ever flown, and nothing up there falls back on its own.

Metric tons in orbit by orbit class, 1957 to today
Combined dry mass of the satellites and rocket bodies still in orbit at each year's end, stacked by orbit class.
05k10k15k20k1960198020002020LEO: 9,758 in orbit todayLEO · 9,758MEO: 751 in orbit todayMEO · 751GEO: 2,902 in orbit todayGEO · 2,902HEO: 1,741 in orbit todayHEO · 1,741
Source: CelesTrak SATCAT; dry masses from GCAT (J. McDowell, CC BY 4.0), via Space Atlas.
Mass in orbit by orbit class, Oct 15, 2026.
OrbitMetric tonsShareObjects
LEO (< 2,000 km)9,75864%18,941
MEO7515%643
GEO (geosynchronous)2,90219%1,702
Highly elliptical1,74111%993

What is counted

Every cataloged satellite and rocket body still in orbit, at its dry mass from Jonathan McDowell's GCAT: the weight of the hardware without propellant, which GCAT describes as the best proxy for an object's mass after its working life. Objects with no known mass count as zero, so the totals lean low. Tracked debris is left out because fragments have no published masses, and a space station counts as its core module only, since the catalog tracks the rest of each station as attached to it.

Totals built from launch masses come out much higher, because they count each upper stage with the propellant it burned after reaching orbit, which can be ten times the stage's own weight.