Mega-Constellations Exposed: How Swarms of Tiny Satellites Are Taking Over Low Earth Orbit
Low Earth Orbit generally refers to orbits up to about 2,000 km above Earth’s surface nasa.gov. At these altitudes, satellites circle the globe in ~90–120 minutes, close enough for low-latency communications and high-resolution observations. In recent years, small satellites – typically massing from a few kilograms up to a few hundred kilograms – have revolutionized LEO activities. These minisatellites, microsatellites, and even tiny nanosatellites pack advanced capabilities into compact frames nasa.gov. Smaller size means lower cost: they can be built and launched much more cheaply than traditional one-ton satellites en.wikipedia.org. This cost reduction, combined with improvements in electronics and solar power, has enabled deploying constellations – large networks of small satellites working in concert. In effect, dozens or thousands of satellites working together can provide continuous global coverage or high revisit rates that a single big satellite in LEO could never achieve. Dozens of flat-panel Starlink small satellites stacked for launch on a single rocket. Mass production and compact design allow many satellites to be launched together, dramatically lowering per-satellite launch cost en.wikipedia.org starlink.com.
