Space 1 June 2025 - 5 June 2025

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.