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🛰️ KeepTrack: Starlink alone is more than half of all payloads in orbit as mega-constellations grow
The satellite-tracking site KeepTrack, run by radar analyst and former US Air Force major Theodore Kruczek, ranks the ten largest satellite constellations as of July 2026. Starlink leads with 10,783 satellites in orbit, more than every other operator combined and over five times the rest of the top ten together, with hundreds of newer satellites carrying direct-to-cell payloads that connect ordinary phones. Two Chinese broadband networks, Qianfan and Guowang, have climbed into the top five in under two years, with filings stretching toward 15,000 and 13,000 satellites. The piece notes astronomers have flagged early Qianfan batches as unpleasantly bright, and that high-orbit fleets stay up for centuries if anything goes wrong.
"KeepTrack’s catalog currently tracks 19,447 payloads in Earth orbit. 10,783 of them belong to one company. Starlink isn’t just the largest satellite constellation ever flown - it is, by itself, more than half of every payload up there, and it’s more than five times bigger than the other nine entries on this list combined."
— KeepTrack, Theodore Kruczek
"SpaceX has launched 12,444 Starlinks since May 2019, which means roughly 1,660 have already reentered - SpaceX has deorbited more satellites than OneWeb has ever launched."
— KeepTrack, Theodore Kruczek
"The satellites fly high, near 1,000 kilometers, in near-polar orbits, which keeps them up for centuries if anything goes wrong. Astronomers have also flagged the early batches as unpleasantly bright."
— KeepTrack on the Qianfan constellation
