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Created for Scientific American, this colorful and bright data visualization displays satellites in an original way. Neat and stylish satellite cluster grids sort them by country, orbit and class – business/commercial, civil, amateur/academic or defense.
The graphic details the mass of the satellites (100 kgs - 5,000 kgs), category (Test and Training, Communications, Images, Surveillance and Meteorology, Navigation and Research) and the launch date, from Nov 1974 till Aug 2020.
According to the graphic, six countries of the world control the largest amount of the satellites in orbit, and the US owns the largest share so far.
On a clear night, if you fix your gaze on a spot in the sky for a few minutes, chances are you'll witness a satellite passing through. Almost every evening when I am grilling I spot one.
In a previous chapter of my life, I possessed the know-how to employ tools for identifying them. There is a dedicated community of enthusiasts who meticulously catalogs these sightings via a mailing list.
The real fun is when when you chance upon something that is absent from public government records—indicating you've likely stumbled upon a satellite belonging to a government that they don't want to disclose.
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55 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 23 Feb
can’t read the text on the chart 😕, but thanks for linking to the hi-res version
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Too much for the space
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