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Satellites and space debris by country

Numbers last changed 7 October 2026, 08:20 UTC (orbit data of 7 Oct, 08:20 UTC, catalogue of 7 Oct, 04:04 UTC). CelesTrak's catalogue lists 34,982 objects in Earth orbit: 17,193 active satellites, 2,908 inactive satellites, 2,299 rocket bodies, 12,527 pieces of debris and 55 unknown objects, recorded under 106 owners. The United States has the most, 18,356.

Search the table below, or open an owner's page for the list of its objects. Our counts from CelesTrak.

What this means

Every object in the public catalogue carries an owner code, which CelesTrak's source table names as a country or an organisation. The three largest owners, the United States, the CIS (former USSR) and China, hold 89.0 percent of everything in Earth orbit. Debris carries an owner code too. In this data, 93.4 percent of the 12,527 pieces of debris in Earth orbit carry the owner of a satellite from the same launch; 826 do not. The catalogue does not record who or what broke a piece off, and these pages do not say.

The catalogue is not everything up there. NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office says "Large orbital debris (> 10 cm) is tracked routinely by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network"; smaller fragments are estimated by sampling and are not listed one by one. 801 of the objects counted here have no public orbit data in the catalogue.

• 34,982Objects in Earth orbit
• 17,193Active satellites
• 12,527Pieces of debris
• 106Owners with an object in orbit

Active satellites in the orbit data as of 7 October 2026, 08:20 UTC (CelesTrak's active list, read about every 2 hours). Catalogue counts as of 7 October 2026, 04:04 UTC. CelesTrak updates its catalogue about once or twice a day, so these numbers move daily, not every few minutes.

Owners with their own page: United States, CIS (former USSR), China, United Kingdom, France, Japan, India, INTELSAT, ESA, Germany, Italy, Globalstar, Canada, South Korea, SES, ORBCOMM, Spain, EUTELSAT, Türkiye, Australia, Taiwan, Sea Launch, Argentina, O3b Networks. Active satellites by owner, with maps and purposes: satellites by country.

Every owner, ranked by objects in orbit

The orbit data of 7 October 2026, 08:20 UTC, which the satellite count page uses, has 16,614 of them with an owner recorded, 579 fewer. 460 of the 579 have no public orbit data in the catalogue, so they cannot be in data made from orbits; the other 119 are missing from the orbit data or listed differently there (it uses CelesTrak's active list and a catalogue copy that can be a day older, and drops orbits older than 90 days). The columns below are all from the catalogue copy, so each row adds up to its total.

Who has the most debris?

China with 4,225 (33.7 percent), the United States with 3,895 (31.1 percent) and the CIS (former USSR) with 3,894 (31.1 percent) have the most catalogued debris in Earth orbit, together 95.9 percent of all 12,527 pieces. 14 of the 106 owners have any debris in orbit.

The last 12 months

In the 365 days to 7 October 2026, 1,407 catalogued objects re-entered the atmosphere, most of them recorded under the United States with 776, China with 318 and the CIS (former USSR) with 131. 4,892 objects launched in those days are still in orbit, most under the United States with 3,756, China with 611 and To Be Determined with 124. 35,669 objects in the catalogue have re-entered since 1957. 302 objects of 12 owners are not counted here because the catalogue records them around the Moon, the Sun or another body.

How these numbers are made

• Source: CelesTrak's whole satellite catalogue (SATCAT), which our collector reads once a day as one file, and CelesTrak's active list of orbit data, read about every 2 hours for the satellite count page.
• In Earth orbit: no decay date in the catalogue, and an orbit centre of Earth or a docking to another object (station modules and visiting craft). On 7 October 2026 this gave 34,982 objects.
• An active satellite is a payload with the status Operational, Partially operational, Backup, Spare or Extended mission; every other payload is inactive. This is our definition, the same as on the satellite count page.
• Rocket bodies, debris and unknown objects are the catalogue's own object types. The owner is the catalogue's owner code, named with CelesTrak's source table and never renamed or merged; the list mixes countries and organisations, so an object recorded under an organisation is not counted under any country.
• The orbit groups on the owner pages use the perigee and apogee in the catalogue: eccentricity 0.25 or more is high elliptical, otherwise the mean of the two heights sets the group (our working definitions, as on the satellite count page).
• Owner pages exist for owners that had at least 30 objects in Earth orbit when the pages were planned (not "To Be Determined"); a page is left as it is while its owner has fewer than 20.
• The pages are rebuilt when either source has a new version. A copy whose catalogue is more than 72 hours old is not rebuilt.

Questions

How many satellites are in orbit?

CelesTrak's catalogue of 7 October 2026, 04:04 UTC lists 20,101 satellites in Earth orbit: 17,193 active and 2,908 inactive. The orbit data of 7 October 2026, 08:20 UTC has 16,614 active satellites with current orbits, the number on the satellite count page.

How much space debris is there?

12,527 catalogued pieces of debris in Earth orbit, plus 2,299 spent rocket bodies, as of 7 October 2026, 04:04 UTC. Pieces too small to track are not in the catalogue, so the real number of fragments is far higher.

Which country has the most space debris?

China, with 4,225 catalogued pieces in Earth orbit (33.7 percent), then the United States with 3,895 and the CIS (former USSR) with 3,894, as the catalogue records owners.

Does the owner of a piece of debris say who made it?

No. The catalogue gives each piece an owner code and does not record how the piece came about. In this data, 93.4 percent of the 12,527 pieces of debris in Earth orbit carry the owner of a satellite from the same launch; 826 do not.

Sources

• CelesTrak SATCAT. The whole satellite catalogue, read once a day as one CSV file (celestrak.org/pub/satcat.csv)
• CelesTrak SATCAT format. What each field means: owner, object type, decay date, orbit centre, perigee, apogee, radar cross-section
• CelesTrak SATCAT source codes. The owner name for each owner code
• CelesTrak SATCAT status codes. Operational, partially operational and the other statuses
• CelesTrak current GP data (the active list). The orbit data behind the satellite count page, read about every 2 hours
• CelesTrak usage policy. Says the catalogue updates manually once or twice a day
• NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, frequently asked questions. On which debris sizes are tracked