How many satellites are launched each year?
The catalog holds objects launched across 49 different years.
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
Objects catalogued
- 20262,778
- 20254,322
- 20242,465
- 20232,311
- 20221,779
- 20211,052
- 2020464
- 2019149
- 2018198
- 2017136
- 201685
- 2015100
- 2014112
- 2013100
- 201264
- 201165
- 201060
- 200951
- 200841
- 200738
Showing the 20 most recent of 49 years.
What this number is not
- These are objects this catalog holds, which is close to "active payloads", not every object ever launched.
- The current year is incomplete by definition, and looks like a fall until it ends.
- Objects that have already reentered are largely absent, so older years read far lower than what actually launched then.
How it is computed, and how it is checked
Every catalogued object grouped by the year in its launch date.
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 16,564 matching rows, and 16,564 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). How many satellites are launched each year? Retrieved 2026-08-22 from https://www.orbitalwiki.com/statistics/satellites-launched-per-yearThe retrieval date matters: this number changes every six hours.