Japan vs China: Who Sends More Satellites? 🇯🇵🇨🇳
Japan or China: who sends more satellites? Satellites launched per year (by owner country), year by year to 2026.
Japan: first in 1970; 3 (2000) → 35 (2025) → 30 (2026, estimate)
China: first in 1970; 6 (2000) → 371 (2025) → 319 (2026, estimate)
What the number means: 2,000 satellites a year = more than 5 every day.
Most new satellites are small internet satellites like Starlink, launched 20-60 at a time.
Satellite = every spacecraft (payload) sent into orbit: communication, internet, weather, navigation, spy, science satellites, space stations, crew capsules and probes. Counted for the owner country.
Terms used:
- satellite: any spacecraft put into orbit (payload)
- Starlink: SpaceX's internet satellites - more than 10,000 in orbit
- estimate: 2026 is not over: the numbers so far scaled up to a full year
Data: Jonathan McDowell, General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (GCAT, planet4589.org), launch and satellite lists updated 29 Oct 2026. Russia includes the Soviet Union (1957-1991). 2026 per-year numbers are estimates for the full year (data up to 27 October scaled to 365 days).
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