Jonathan's Space Report | Space Statistics

Constellation List

I consider constellations with N > 50 planned satellites as 'Large' and N > 1000 as 'Enormous'.

Each enormous (expected N > 1000 ) planned constellation is listed here. The tables show:

Layer: An 'element number' (1,2,...) or `layer'. These correspond to the shells defined in FCC or ITU filings. Each layer corresponds to a shell of satellites at a given nominal altitude and inclination, with a given number of orbital planes and a target number of satellites per plane.
SubShell: A 'sub-shell number' ( 0,1,2,..). In practice, for the constellations deployed to date, the shells of satellites do not necessarily correspond exactly to the FCC/ITU filings. For each layer, sub-shell 0 is the shell defined by the official filing. Sub-shells 1,2, etc are well-defined shells of launched satellites which appear to be associated with the layer but have slightly different orbital parameters from the nominal ones. There can be many sub-shells for a single layer, as in the case of OneWeb.
LayerName: Descriptive name, if any, usually from FCC filing
SimLayer: A `simulation layer code' (A,B,C, etc.). These are arbitrary designations assigned by me to group the constellation shells in my simulations. You can ignore this value.
Altitude: The altitude of the sub-shell is given in km
Inclination: The inclination of the sub-shell to the equator is given in degrees.
No of Planes: For each official layer (so, sub-shell 0 only) the number of orbital planes for the nominal shell is given.
Sats Per Plane: For each official layer (so, sub-shell 0 only) the number of satellites per plane for the nominal shell is given.
Sats on Stn In Subshell: The number of satellites currently 'on station', in the sub-shell at the given altitude.
Sats on Stn in Layer: The actual number of satellites currently in the layer. This number is the sum the number in all the sub-shells.
Sats off Stn: Sats associated with this layer, but not currently at the operational altitude (either in ascent phase, retirement/descent phase, or held at non standard altitude for debugging or relocation)
Total Sats up for layer: For each official layer, the total actual number of satellites currently in orbit - the sum of the previous two values, both in one of the subshells or originally intended to be in that layer.
Total Sats Planned: For each official layer, the total planned number of satellites is given - this is just the product of (No of Planes) and (Sats per Plane).

Constellation State Layer SubShell LayerName Altitude Inclination No of planes Sats per plane Sats on stn Sats on stn Sats off stn Sats down Total Sats launched Total Sats Planned First Launch Last Launch

km deg (planned) (planned) in SubShell in Layer for Layer from Layer for Layer in Layer

SEM: E-SPACE Semaphore-C (116640 satellites planned, 0 up, 0 operational) - -

Semaphore FR 1 0 Shell 1 415 0.0 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR 2 0 Shell 2 500 0.0 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR 3 0 Shell 3 600 0.0 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR 4 0 Shell 4 415 10.0 16 240 0 0 0 0 0 3840

Semaphore FR 5 0 Shell 5 500 10.0 16 240 0 0 0 0 0 3840

Semaphore FR 6 0 Shell 6 600 10.0 16 240 0 0 0 0 0 3840

Semaphore FR 7 0 Shell 7 415 33.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 8 0 Shell 8 500 33.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 9 0 Shell 9 600 33.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 10 0 Shell 10 415 54.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 11 0 Shell 11 500 54.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 12 0 Shell 12 600 54.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 13 0 Shell 13 415 72.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 14 0 Shell 14 500 72.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 15 0 Shell 15 600 72.0 72 120 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 16 0 Shell 16 415 88.0 36 240 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 17 0 Shell 17 500 88.0 36 240 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 18 0 Shell 18 600 88.0 36 240 0 0 0 0 0 8640

Semaphore FR 19 0 Shell 19 415 97.8 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR 20 0 Shell 20 500 97.8 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR 21 0 Shell 21 600 97.8 1 240 0 0 0 0 0 240

Semaphore FR TOTAL 0 0 0 0 116640

18 : Total planned constellations
543811 : Total planned satellites
6 : Total constellations with at least one launched sat
5495 : Total launched sats in all constellations
4780 : Total launched sats in constellation operational shells

Data last updated: 2023 Sep 30 12:19:39

Data on this page are licensed CC-BY. You are free to reuse them but please credit 'Jonathan McDowell, https://planet4589.org' or similar.

Jonathan's Space Pages

Enormous (`Mega') Satellite Constellations

Constellation List