Learning Task edit

  • Explore the list of satellite constellations and explain the similarities and differences between those constellations!

List of satellite constellations edit

Navigational satellite constellations edit

Satellite constellations used for navigation
Name Operator Satellites and orbits

(latest design, excluding spares)

Coverage Service(s) Status Years in service
Global Positioning System (GPS) AFSPC 24 in 6 planes at 20,180 km (55° MEO) Global Navigation Operational 1993-
GLONASS Roscosmos 24 in 3 planes at 19,130 km (64°8' MEO) Global Navigation Operational 1995-
Galileo GSA, ESA 24 in 3 planes at 23,222 km (56° MEO) Global Navigation Operational 2019-
BeiDou CNSA 3 geostationary at 35,786 km (GEO)

3 in 3 planes at 35,786 km (55° GSO)

24 in 3 planes at 21,150 km (55° MEO)

Regional

Global

Navigation Operational 2012- (Asia)

2018- (Globally)

NAVIC ISRO 3 geostationary at 35,786 km (GEO)

4 in 2 planes at 250-24,000 km (29° GSO)

Regional Navigation Operational 2018-
QZSS JAXA 1 geostationary at 35,786 km (GEO)

3 in 3 planes at 32,600-39,000 (43° GSO)

Regional Navigation Operational 2018-

Communications satellite constellations edit

See also Satellite communication and the Communications Satellite Constellations

Broadcasting edit

Monitoring edit

Two-way communication edit

A number of systems were proposed in the past but never realised:

A number of next-generation telecommunications satellite constellations are in-development:[1]

Proposed satellite internet constellations
Constellation Manufacturer Number Weight Unveil. Avail. Altitude Coverage User speed Band Inter-satellite links Status
Iridium Next Thales Alenia
+ Orbital ATK
66 860 kg
1,900 lb
2009 2018 780 km
485 mi
Global 1.4 Mbit/s L (1 – 2 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz)
K 23 GHz [2] Complete
Boeing Boeing Satellite 1,396-2,956 N/A 2016 N/A 1,200 km
745 mi
broadband V (40 – 75 GHz) none [3][4] transferring the application to OneWeb[5]
LeoSat Thales Alenia 78-108 1,250 kg
2,755 lb
2015 2022 1,400 km
895 mi
in increments of 100 Mbit/s Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) optical [6] first launches in 2021[7]
OneWeb constellation OneWeb
Airbus JV
882-1980[8] 145 kg
320 lb
2015 2020[9] 1,200 km
745 mi
up to 595 Mbit/s[9] Ku (12–18 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz)
none [10][11] 6 pilot satellites in February 2019
Starlink SpaceX 4,425-11,943 227 kg 2015 2020[12] 550-1,325 km
341-823 mi
up to 1 Gbit/s[13] Ku (12–18 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz)
optical[14] Two batches of 60 satellites launched in May and November 2019
O3b (SES S.A.) Thales Alenia (O3b)
Boeing (O3bm)
20 (O3b)
7 (O3bm)
700 kg (O3b)
1,543 lb
2008 (O3b)
2017 (O3bm)
2014 (O3b)
2021 (O3bm)
8,000 km
4,970 mi
45°S to 45°N 1 Gbit/s for a cruise ship Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) none O3b complete

O3bm under development

Telesat LEO Airbus SSTL
SS/Loral[a]
117-512[15] N/A 2016 2021 1,000–1,248 km
621–775 mi
fiber-optic cable-like Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) optical [16][17] two prototypes: 2018 launch
CASIC Hongyun[18] 156 2017 2022 160–2,000 km
99–1,243 mi
prototype launched in December 2018[19]
CASC Hongyan[20] 320 2017 2023 1,100 km
680 mi
prototype launched in December 2018[21]
Project Kuiper Kuiper Systems LLC (Amazon) 3236 2019 590 km (784 sats)

610 km (1296 sats)

630 km (1156 sats)

56°S to 56°N[22] FCC filing in July 2019
  1. first two prototypes

Observational satellite constellations edit

See also List of Earth observation satellites.

References edit

  1. Thierry Dubois (Dec 19, 2017). "Eight Satellite Constellations Promising Internet Service From Space". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
  2. Muri, Paul; McNair, Janise (1 April 2012). "A Survey of Communication Sub-systems for Intersatellite Linked Systems and CubeSat Missions". Journal of Communications 7 (4). doi:10.4304/jcm.7.4.290-308. 
  3. The Boeing Company (June 22, 2016). "SAT-LOA-20160622-00058". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  4. The Boeing Company (June 22, 2016). "SAT-LOA-20161115-00109". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  5. "Boeing wants to help OneWeb satellite plans". Advanced Television. 2017-12-17. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  6. LeoSat Enterprises. "A NEW TYPE OF SATELLITE CONSTELLATION". Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  7. "LeoSat gains Hispasat as second investor, drops demo satellite plans". SpaceNews. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  8. "OneWeb asks FCC to authorize 1,200 more satellites". SpaceNews. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  9. 9.0 9.1 "OneWeb hardware finally coming together". SpaceNews. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  10. WorldVu Satellites Limited (April 28, 2016). "ONEWEB NON-GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE SYSTEM - ATTACHMENT A". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  11. WorldVu Satellites Limited (April 28, 2016). "SAT-LOI-20160428-00041". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  12. "Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources". Reuters. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  13. "SpaceX Set to Launch 2 Starlink Satellites to Test Gigabit Broadband". ISPreview. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  14. "This is how Elon Musk plans to use SpaceX to give internet to everyone". CNET. 21 February 2018.
  15. "Telesat says ideal LEO constellation is 292 satellites, but could be 512". SpaceNews. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  16. Telesat Canada (August 24, 2017). "Telesat Technical Narrative". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  17. Telesat Canada (August 24, 2017). "SAT-PDR-20170301-00023". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  18. Zhao, Lei (5 March 2018). "Satellite will test plan for communications network". China Daily. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  19. Barbosa, Rui C. (21 December 2018). "Chinese Long March 11 launches with the first Hongyun satellite". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  20. Jones, Andrew (13 November 2018). "China to launch first Hongyan LEO communications constellation satellite soon". GBTimes. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  21. Barbosa, Rui (29 December 2018). "Long March 2D concludes 2018 campaign with Hongyan-1 launch". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  22. Porter, Jon (2019-04-04). "Amazon will launch thousands of satellites to provide internet around the world". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-11-17.