{"id":38415,"date":"2020-02-08T11:15:51","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=38415"},"modified":"2020-02-08T11:15:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:15:51","slug":"infographic-more-low-orbit-satellites-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=38415","title":{"rendered":"Infographic – More Low Orbit Satellites in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Space<\/a>
(Union of Concerned Scientists, Statista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8 Feb. 2020. It’s become a clich\u00e9 to say that space is the next frontier, but as this weekend’s infographic suggests, space may more resemble the wild west. The business data research company Statista<\/a> published a chart yesterday showing the preponderance of low-earth orbit satellites now in space, far exceeding higher-orbiting space systems.<\/p>\n

Numbers for the chart come from a database compiled by Union of Concerned Scientists<\/a>, an advocacy group in the U.S. As of the end of September 2019, according to UCS, low-earth orbit satellites — those with altitudes of 500 to 2,000 kilometers — account for two-thirds (66%) of the 2,218 systems in flight. Satellites in geostationary orbits, flying 35,000 kilometers above the earth, represent a quarter (25%) of the total.<\/p>\n

Many of those low-earth orbit satellites are launched by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin for high-speed communications services, but they’ve provoked concerns about higher risks of collisions<\/a>, as well as disruptions to astronomy<\/a>. The chart also shows the U.S. provides 1,007 or 45 percent of all satellites now in space, followed by China with 323 and Russia with 164.<\/p>\n

More from Science & Enterprise:<\/p>\n