NASA released the Spot The Station mobile app in November 2023 to extend ISS flyover tracking beyond the website. FindStarlink.com provides Starlink sighting predictions with visibility labels (bright, average, dim) and a live map, plus free iOS/Android companion apps; it is ad-free and donations are optional. Orbitrack offers offline access to thousands of satellites, is…
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Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957, was the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik 2, launched in 1957, carried Laika the dog into orbit, the first living creature in space. Explorer 1, launched January 31, 1958, discovered Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, proving satellites could do serious science. TIROS-1, launched in 1960, was the first…
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TIROS-1, launched by NASA on April 1, 1960, weighed about 120 kg and transmitted over 19,000 cloud images in 78 days, proving the concept of space-based weather observation. GOES-16 (GOES-East), launched in 2016 as part of the GOES-R series, delivers 0.5 km resolution imagery across 16 spectral bands and can scan as often as 30…
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The CORONA (Discoverer) program operated from 1959 to 1972 as the United States’ first photo-reconnaissance satellite program, with Discoverer XIV achieving the first mid-air film recovery in August 1960. KH-11 KENNEN (CRYSTAL), first launched in 1976, introduced electro-optical digital imaging with about 15 cm per-pixel resolution, and a 2019 declassified image from USA-224 reportedly achieved…
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As of March 2025, approximately 14,900 total satellites were in orbit, with about 11,000–12,000 active and 3,000–4,000 inactive or defunct. SpaceX’s Starlink has about 7,000–7,500 active satellites in orbit as of 2025, accounting for over 60% of all operational satellites and a goal of 42,000 total. OneWeb deployed 648 satellites with roughly 652 operational by…
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From 2025 to 2030, ground control shifts from hardware-centric architectures to cloud-enabled, software-defined infrastructure via Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS). The global satellite ground station market is projected to grow from about $56 billion in 2022 to $125 billion by 2030. AWS Ground Station and Microsoft Azure Orbital provide pay-per-use, cloud-connected antennas that deliver downlinks directly into cloud…
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HTS use numerous narrow spot-beams and on-board processing to deliver dramatically higher data rates than legacy FSS, with platforms like Boeing 702X and SES-17 featuring fully digital, reconfigurable payloads. HTS constellations can deliver terabits of capacity worldwide to power broadband, backhaul, IoT and government networks. Modern HTS platforms operate primarily in Ku/Ka-bands and increasingly in…
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SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), launched in 1995, became the first satellite to continuously observe the Sun from the Sun–Earth L1 point and carries the LASCO coronagraph, enabling CME tracking and the discovery of more than 5,000 comets. ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer), launched in 1997, and NOAA’s DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory), launched in 2015,…
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About 75% of the planet is obscured by cloud cover or darkness at any moment, making optical imaging inaccessible. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites actively illuminate the ground with microwave radar and synthesize a large aperture by moving the antenna to produce high-resolution images. SAR can operate day or night and in all weather, providing…
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Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, was the first artificial satellite. Explorer 1 became the United States’ first satellite in 1958. As of 2025, there are roughly 11,000+ active satellites orbiting Earth, with tens of thousands of pieces of inactive satellites and debris. Geostationary satellites orbit about 35,786 km (22,236…
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