2022 6,718
2021 4,852
2020 3,372
2016 1,459
2012 1,046
The decade’s glamor rocket launch paid off: American- and Canadian-designed James Webb Space Telescope, pushed into space by a European Space Agency-built Ariane 5 two years ago, now sits contentedly far above the Earth at “Lagrange 2”* a million miles away, sending back messages about star formation, dark matter, exoplanets and the odd phenomena of early galaxies.
The Webb’s passage through the ionosphere brought it through a cloud of about 5000 smaller satellites — weather and climate monitors, maritime and automotive GPS guides, gaming stations, governments’ spying eyes, cable television forwarders — in low-earth orbits ranging from 300 kilometers to a few thousand kilometers above the earth. Twenty months later, this satellite cloud is appreciably thicker, numbering nearly 7,000. In a sense, as the Webb opens up a large high-altitude bay window on the universe; far below, massive growth in private-sector launches of small, disposable commercial means the sky is filling up with eyes and voices.
Some data: Forty years ago in 1993, about 510 satellites were in orbit. By 2000, the total was just about 1,000; then each year from 2000 through 2010, about 100 satellites went into orbit. During the Webb launch year 2021, 1,400 smaller satellites went up, matching the entire decade-long total for the 2000s, and last year’s 2,000 was another 40% jump. Thus the count of working satellites has doubled since the Biden inauguration ceremony, and this year promises pretty much the same.
And some recent and near-future launches to illustrate:
The Union of Concerned Scientists, which does a running count of active satellites, reports that the very large majority of these satellites are American (in some way): 4,529 of the 6,718, including 3,996 private commercial satellites, 260 civilian government, and 247 military, carry a U.S. flag of some sort. China operates 590, Russia 174, and other countries 1,425. About 88% — 5,938, by UCS’s very specific count — are in low-earth orbits. The largest single contributor to the growth is the “Starlink” internet service run by Space-X, which has put up about 4,698 satellites as of mid-2023 and ultimately hopes for a fleet of 42,000. These last for about five years, then fall down and burn up on impact with the atmosphere. Webb’s lifespan is uncertain, but should be “significantly more than 10 years.”
Union of Concerned Scientists counts working satellites.
NASA passes on the latest James Webb Space Telescope observations.
… and recaps a June Space-X launch.
… while the European Space Agency explains “LaGrange 2” (a stable orbital point, about four times as far from Earth as the moon, one of five such spots discovered through calculations by 18th-century mathematician Joseph LaGrange, a Paris resident and Torino native).
Civilian launchers:
Calendar and count:
On-line journal Spaceflight Now tracks launches and payloads.
A United Nations index of 16,327 “objects launched into outer space” since 1957 (their 2021 count was 8,089).
And last… Which generation-old sci-fi show got it right?
“Boldly go”: The public sector and, international cooperation for deep-space exploration, expanding frontiers of knowledge, and a search for the common good in Star Trek.
“20 minutes into the future”: Ruthless media conglomerates and vast fleets of disposable low-orbit satellites, floods of addictive low-quality information, and social collapse in The Max Headroom Chronicles.
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank Progressive Economy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
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