Infographic – Countries with Most Space Satellites

Click on image for full-size view (Statista.com)

23 Feb. 2019. On Tuesday, President Trump signed an order beginning a process to establish a new separate branch of the American military for operations in space. The advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists counters, however, that space is an arena where most activity is for peaceful purposes, such as scientific research, a topic examined often on Science & Enterprise.

Moreover, as one might expect, Union of Concerned Scientists has the data to back up its claim, the source for a chart published on Thursday by our friends at Statista, this weekend’s infographic. The group’s data show the U.S. has 830 satellites orbiting the earth, about 3 times the 280 flown by China, and nearly 6 times the number operated by Russia or those with multi-national origin.

Union of Concerned Scientists says as well that more than 4 in 10 current satellites in orbit (43%) are for commercial use, with 2 in 10 (20%) for government purposes. Only 302 satellites, or 15 percent, have military functions.

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