Earth-watching satellites
1,647 satellites in orbit, 1,223 operating.
The count is the catalogue’s as of Nov 10, 2026, 12:17 PM; 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
An Earth-watching satellite looks down: the weather satellites GOES-19 and Meteosat-12, the Earth science missions Terra and Landsat 9. Otherwise the kind is the one GCAT gives a payload whose purpose is imaging, radar imaging, weather, Earth science or geodesy.
A satellite’s kind is the one Orbinauts writes for it, else its constellation’s, else the one its purpose in GCAT gives.
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| Satellite | Kind | Orbit class | Launched | Operating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESSA 9 (TOS-G) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 8 (TOS-F) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| COSMOS 256 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 4078 (DMSP 4B F2) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 7 (TOS-E) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 7869 (DMSP 4B F1) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| COSMOS 203 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| EXPLORER 36 (GEOS 2) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 6 (TOS-D) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 1264 (DMSP 4A F4) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 7202 (DMSP 4A F3) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 9 (EGRS 9) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 5 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| DIADEME 2 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| DIADEME 1 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 6073 (DMSP 4A F2) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 4 (TOS-B) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 8 (EGRS 8) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 3 (TOS-A) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 6026 (DMSP 4A F1) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 7 (EGRS 7) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| NIMBUS 2 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 0340 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 2 (OT-2) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| DIAPASON (D1-A) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ESSA 1 (OT-3) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| EXPLORER 29 (GEOS 1) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 8068 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 5 (EGRS 5) | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 10 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 4 (EGRS 4) | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 3 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 9 | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended | |
| COSMOS 44 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 4467 B | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 4467 A | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 3367 B | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| OPS 3367 A | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| SECOR 1B | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 8 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| ANNA 1B | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 6 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| FTV 3502 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 5 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 4 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| TIROS 3 | Earth-watching satellite | Low Earth orbit | Ended | |
| VANGUARD 2 | Earth-watching satellite | Medium Earth orbit | Ended |