When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The number of spacecraft orbiting Earth is rising fast thanks to the emergence of private ...

Satellite space quiz: What's orbiting Earth?

Satellite constellations are a relatively new threat to astronomy; prior to the drop in launch costs driven by SpaceX’s ...

One of the most important satellite launches of all time was that of Sputnik. When the Soviet satellite became the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth on October 4, 1957, space must have seemed ...

In the last five years, the number of satellites orbiting Earth has more than doubled and will likely double again within a similar timespan, thanks to the efforts of private companies such as SpaceX.