Quick–just how many satellites, operational or not, are orbiting Earth? Pretend you’re trying to impress your fellow engineers. Even better, pretend you’re trying to impress people in a bar (although that strategy might backfire). Have you guessed? Do you really want to know if you’re correct or are you satisfied with impressing the folks in the pool hall? If it’s the former, then this Talking Points Memo post helpfully gives several numbers regarding satellites orbiting the Earth. So next time, you’ll be very accurate and the biker in the leather jacket will buy you that beer for your numerical diligence. Well, it might helpful, at least, for those who love minute details and numbers. Maybe you should bring it up at an accountants meeting instead?
But before you go over to the post, did you guess a number? You’d be closer if the number were in the thousands. Do you know who owns all of them? What countries do they belong to? Remember, you’re going to have to include cubesats, small sats, GEOs, LEOs, MEOs, and HEOs. It might help during your counting if you have some excellent optics and a pad and pen. Or you could just go to Talking Points Memo’s post and find out. That would certainly be easier, and take less time. But if you’re like me, maybe you’re not so busy…
The Mad Spaceball 