Communications satellites

15,630 satellites in orbit, 13,983 operating.

The count is the catalogue’s as of Nov 12, 2026, 12:17 AM; whether a satellite is operating is as Orbinauts writes it where it has written when the satellite’s mission ended, and otherwise as Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue believes it, licensed CC BY 4.0: GCAT

A communications satellite relays signals between the ground and orbit: Hispasat 30W-6 among those Orbinauts describes. Otherwise the kind is the one GCAT gives a payload whose purpose is communications; a satellite a defence organisation flies keeps the kind, with Military said beside it.

A satellite’s kind is the one Orbinauts writes for it, else its constellation’s, else the one its purpose in GCAT gives.

See these on the map