The satellite revolution in Low Earth Orbit

In the last twenty-five years, the number of active satellites orbiting the Earth has increased from about 500 to 8,000.  “In the first quarter of this year, we deployed nearly 1,000,” says space industry analyst Carissa Bryce Christensen.  She adds, “Instead of a smaller number of very large satellites mostly far away, we are seeing many, many small satellites very close in.”  The latest episode of Next Giant Leap, a podcast produced in partnership between GZERO and the Canadian space company MDA Space, explores the exponential increase in satellites that are being launched into Low Earth orbit (LEO).  This is the zone of space between about 100 and 1200 miles above the Earth.   By the end of the decade, MDA Space’s Chief Executive Officer Mike Greenley predicts there will be tens of thousands of LEO satellites.   Many of them will be the component parts of vast satellite constellations, such as the Starlink network, offering broadband internet. Others will be providing the servic...