Business insider
18h hours ago

WASHINGTON — Humanity has launched 9,158 spacecraft since 1957, but a new animation illustrates just how dramatically that number is about to be eclipsed — and in an alarmingly short time.

Most spacecraft hug close to the planet in a zone called low-Earth orbit, or within 1,200 miles of terra firma. Only about 2,200 of the total are still functioning.

However, there is now an unprecedented push by private companies to create globe-encircling networks of ultra-fast, high-throughput internet satellites through the end of this decade.

SpaceX, Amazon, OneWeb, and other companies plan to collectively launch as many as 57,000 new satellites before the end of 2030.
A new animation by aerospace data firm Analytical Graphics, Inc. shows the year-by-year rollout of all the new satellites.

Every new satellite compounds the likelihood of close encounters between spacecraft and space junk.

https://www.businessinsider.com/animation-internet-satellites-surrounding-earth-starlink-kuiper-oneweb-agi-2020-1

panafrican:
Isn't the probability a commercial airplane being struck by a satellite debris increasing ?
Just wondering

PrinxArthur1:
aicraft flies at altitude of about 30,000-40,000 feet but ,low earth orbit is about 656,1769 feet