In the 50 years since satellites first went into orbit, Communication system evolved a lot that bring us much closer to each other to make our planet a global village. We can’t underestimate the importance of satellite technology in providing vital communication to today’s world. From weather forecasting to television broadcasting to travel guide to linking remote areas, satellites are making our life much easier. Most of communications around the world are covered through them and considered as the most vital part of fastest communication in the world. There are many purpose for which they are launched but mostly they are used for communication, observation, weather, research, navigation and defense. Exchange of data between users, countries or organizations is served through them corresponding to their range and angle. Mobile networks, Internet, Intranet, IP Telephony, GPS and all other communication types are operated through them.
There are three kinds of orbits namely Lower Earth, Medium Earth and Geostationary in which satellites move and revolve around the earth to serve uninterrupted communication. Until now, around 6600 satellites have been launched in the world from which the 3600 have been able to stay in their respective orbits. From these 3600, nearly thousand are currently operational and serving the worldwide communication. Among these 1000, 500 are orbiting in Lower Earth orbit, 50 in Medium Earth orbit (about 20000 Km) and the rest ones are in geostationary orbit (about 36000 Km).
Russia has always been the leading country in artificial satellite manufacturing and its deployment and will continue to do due to exceptional dominance and leading instinct in this department. It has most operational satellites of total 3488, followed by USA and China. To know about which country has the most satellites in the world, we have a list below containing statistics from year 2015.
| Rank | Country/ Organization | Deployed Spacecrafts | Lower-Earth Orbit Spacecraft | Medium-Earth Orbit Spacecraft | GEO Spacecraft | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 3488 | 3057 | 187 | 154 | 90 |
| 2 | United States | 2137 | 1345 | 142 | 187 | 463 |
| 3 | China | 244 | 176 | 7 | 55 | 6 |
| 4 | Japan | 197 | 109 | 4 | 53 | 31 |
| 5 | Globalstar | 84 | 82 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | INTELSA | 81 | 1 | 2 | 72 | 6 |
| 7 | European Space Agency | 71 | 31 | 18 | 8 | 14 |
| 8 | India | 71 | 36 | 2 | 31 | 2 |
| 9 | France | 69 | 46 | 1 | 11 | 11 |
| 10 | Germany | 64 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
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