10,000 active satellites in orbit, according to Look Up Space

Look Up Space announces a major milestone in space history with the passing of the milestone of 10,000 active satellites in orbit this month.  On June 19, 2024, Look Up Space counted 10,019 active satellites, two-thirds of which (6,646) belong to Starlink, the constellation of SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk. The majority (9,254) of these satellites are in low-Earth orbits, mainly between 400 and 1,200 kilometers from the Earth.

Look Up Space also counts nearly 3,200 rocket stages and 13,326 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. This is just a small fraction of the currently unaccounted-for debris, which is estimated to a number close to a million pieces measuring a centimeter or more in size.

Every day, Look Up Space's SYNAPSE data fusion platform, equipped with advanced algorithms, detects almost a thousand collision risks with a probability greater than one chance in a million, and between 50 and 100 risks with a probability greater than one chance in 100,000. These statistics reveal a worrying reality: the risks of collision in space are real and frequent.

"Even if the comparison is debatable, the probability of one of these collisions occurring is much greater than that of winning the lottery jackpot. "explains Michel Friedling, former space commander and co-founder and CEO of Look Up Space.

"These risks make space increasingly vulnerable, posing the question not if a major collision will occur, but when and who will be the victim," says Juan Carlos Dolado, co-founder and CTO of Look Up Space, and member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Look Up Space, which develops and deploys a worldwide network of radars to detect and track objects in Earth orbit, is entirely dedicated to making space safe and sustainable, so that future generations can continue to benefit from space-based services.