OrbitalWiki
Index/statistics/satellites-by-operator

Which operators run the most satellites?

Active satellites are run by 830 distinct operators.

Catalog as of 2026-08-15 12:30 UTC · page generated 2026-08-22

The catalog has not refreshed in over 48 hours, so this figure is older than it should be.

The breakdown

Active satellites

  1. SpaceX10,755
  2. OneWeb651
  3. Kuiper Systems LLC391
  4. Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology Ltd239
  5. China Satellite Network Group Co. Ltd.206
  6. Planet Labs, Inc. (Planet)121
  7. General Armaments Dept. of the PLA102
  8. Strategic Support Troops87
  9. Iridium Satellite LLC80
  10. China National Space Administration73
  11. Aerospace Defence Forces69
  12. Space Development Agency69
  13. GeeSpace63
  14. US Air Force Space and Missile Center58
  15. Indian Space Research Organization55
  16. China Aerospace Corp53
  17. Sitronics Group51
  18. Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing (CASC 5th Acad)46
  19. Chang Guang Satellite Technology Ltd42
  20. Spire40

Showing the top 20 of 830 operators.

What this number is not

  • The long tail is very long. Most operators in this list run a single satellite.
  • Operator names come from the launch catalog and reflect the entity that files, which is not always the brand you know.

How it is computed, and how it is checked

Active payloads grouped by operator, after merging the name variants the launch catalog files separately, such as the two entries SpaceX used to appear under.

The grouping runs here, in one pass over every matching row, so there is no second route to this figure that a page render can afford. What is checked is that the read was complete: Postgres counts the matching rows itself, and that is compared against the number of rows actually read. A truncated or capped read withholds the figure. The headline is not independently recomputed, and the page does not claim it is.

Read check today: Postgres counts 16,372 matching rows, and 16,372 were read and grouped here, so nothing was dropped or truncated. The headline itself is not recomputed by a second route.

Where the underlying data comes from is on the methodology page, field by field on sources.

Cite this

OrbitalWiki (2026). Which operators run the most satellites? Retrieved 2026-08-22 from https://www.orbitalwiki.com/statistics/satellites-by-operator

The retrieval date matters: this number changes every six hours.