Satellite internet constellation

Short description: Satellite constellation providing internet connectivity

A satellite internet constellation is a constellation of artificial satellites providing satellite internet service. In particular, the term has come to refer to a new generation of very large constellations (sometimes referred to as megaconstellations[1]) orbiting in low Earth orbit (LEO) to provide low-latency, high bandwidth (broadband) internet service.[2] As of 2020, 63 percent of rural households worldwide lacked internet access due to the infrastructure requirements of underground cables and network towers. Satellite internet constellations offer a low-cost solution for expanding coverage.[3]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Design
* 3 Potential
* 3.1 Issues and criticism
* 3.2 Mitigation in astronomy
* 3.3 Space governance
* 3.4 Federation of Cross-Orbit Satellite Networks
* 4 Constellations
* 4.1 Operational
* 4.1.1 Megaconstellations (1,000+ satellites)
* 4.1.2 Smaller LEO constellations
* 4.1.3 Non-LEO constellations
* 4.2 Planned
* 4.3 Defunct
* 5 See also
* 6 References

## History

While more-limited satellite internet services have been available through geosynchronous commsats orbiting in geostationary orbit for years, these have been of quite limited bandwidth (not broadband), high-latency, and provided at such a relatively high price that demand for the services offered has been quite low.[4][5][6]

In the 1990s, several LEO satellite internet constellations were proposed and developed, including Celestri (63 satellites) and Teledesic (initially 840, later 288 satellites). These projects were abandoned after the bankruptcy of the Iridium and Globalstar satellite phone constellations in the early 2000s.

In the 2010s, interest in satellite internet constellations reemerged due to the dropping cost of launching to space and the increased demand for broadband internet access. Internet satellite constellations are planned by private companies like OneWeb (OneWeb constellation),[7][8] SpaceX (Starlink),[9][10] Amazon (Leo),[11][12] and Russia's Roscosmos (Sfera)[13][14] and China (Hongwan, 2018,[2] or national satellite internet project, 2021).[15] By late 2018, more than 18,000 new satellites had been proposed to be launched and placed in LEO orbits between 2019 and 2025.[2] This is more than ten times as many satellites as the sum of all active satellites in space as of March 2018. More recent proposals by 2020 could bring that number to over 100,000.[16]

A year after the start of fielding the first satellite internet constellation—Starlink which began launching in late 2019 and began beta test of the network in late 2020; OneWeb began satellite deployment in 1H2020—the competitive disruption to established satellite company business models began to be better understood. In early 2021, the three largest European satellite operators SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat—which had until that time eschewed developing and fielding a broadband satellite internet constellation with private funds—informed the European Commission that they would be willing to invest in the development of such a project if the European Union were to invest government funds in the effort as well.[17] All three companies had formerly focused on the provision of communication services from GEO and MEO orbits, while the newer satellite internet providers have been fielding their constellations exclusively in LEO.[17] In March 2025, the largest of the three operators, SES entered into a partnership with satellite direct-to-device (D2D) provider, Lynk Global to route traffic between Lynk's LEO constellation and SES’s MEO satellites and gateways to enable secure real-time data delivery and reduce requirements for ground infrastructure.[18]

In 2018, the Russian government established the Sfera (Sphere) constellation program, to consist of 162 satellites, providing broadband internet connectivity, message relay, video broadcast, and remote sensing services. In October 2022, a demonstrator satellite called Skif-D technology was launched.[19]

## Design

Proposed systems vary greatly in the number of satellites, the types of orbits and the telecommunication architecture (in particular the presence or absence of inter-satellite links). System designs have been analyzed using statistical methods and simulations to estimate the total throughput.[20] Particularly challenging is the dynamic nature of the network, as LEO satellites typically pass over a given location in less than 10 minutes.[21]

## Potential

For continental distances (greater than about 3,000 km[22]), LEO satellite internet networks are expected to be able to provide lower latency than optical fiber links.[23][22][24] This is expected to hold even without inter-satellite links, using only ground station relays.[25][26] The new networks are said to be able to "potentially compete with today's ISPs in many settings".[22]

### Issues and criticism

Critics have objected against the increased light pollution for astronomy, the increased possibility satellite collisions resulting in space debris and, more generally, a lack of end-of-life cleanup for the increasing number of satellites that would become space debris.[27][28]

Astronomers have studied the potential effects increased satellite usage in Low Earth Orbit would have on Very Large Telescope that use ultra-wide imaging exposures, such as the 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope[29] used in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time project at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. They found that 30 to 40% of exposures could be compromised during the first and last hours of the night.[30] A study found that twilight observations are particularly affected by SC and that the fraction of streaked images taken during twilight has increased from less than 0.5% in late 2019 to 18% in August 2021 due to SpaceX Starlink Satellites.[31] Astronomers have also voiced concern over the impact satellite internet constellations will have on radio astronomy.[32]

Additional research is needed to determine impact of (inter alia) light pollution on various locations, communities, indigenous peoples, and other forms of observation.[citation needed]

### Mitigation in astronomy

A report from the SATCON1 workshop in 2020 concluded that the effects of large satellite constellations can severely affect some astronomical research efforts and lists six ways to mitigate harm to astronomy.[33][34] In 2022, the IAU announced the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference to coordinate or aggregate measures to mitigate such detrimental effects.[35][36][37] The AAS is maintaining a living document that tracks recent progress in the field.[38]

### Space governance

The growth of all tracked objects in space over time showing a recent increase of active satellites[39]

UN Guidelines and ISO standard 24113 on space debris mitigation "encourages" organizations to voluntarily:[28]

* Limit debris released during normal operations
* Minimize the potential for on-orbit break-ups
* Post-mission disposal
* Prevention of on-orbit collisions

A study suggests policies could help achieve the goal of debris mitigation and space sustainability.[28] A team of scientists outlined rationale for governance that regulates the current free externalization of true costs and risks, treating orbital space around the Earth as an "additional ecosystem" or a common "part of the human environment" which should be subject to the same concerns and regulations like e.g. oceans on Earth. The study concludes that it needs "new policies, rules and regulations at national and international level".[40][39]

As of 2022, global space activity is not sufficiently shaped by any international entity, and therefore "there is no common set of rules that govern global space activity and no mechanisms to ensure the proper disposal of hardware at the completion of space missions. Nor is there any coordinated effort to clean up the decades of space debris already accumulated in orbit."[41]

### Federation of Cross-Orbit Satellite Networks

There exist many satellite operators at LEO, MEO, and GEO. Similar to the Internet, which is a network of networks, satellite networks of different operators can also form federated networks of satellite networks.[42]

## Constellations

### Operational

#### Megaconstellations (1,000+ satellites)

* Amazon Leo – A United States satellite internet constellation developed by Amazon. The planned constellation consists of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit. Commercial service began in 2025.
* Guowang – A Chinese satellite internet megaconstellation operated by China Satellite Network Group (SatNet). The planned constellation consists of more than 13,000 satellites.[43][44]
* Qianfan – A Chinese satellite internet megaconstellation developed by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). The project aims to deploy approximately 14,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, with launches beginning in August 2024.[45]
* Starlink – A satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX. The network consists of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit and provides broadband internet and direct-to-device connectivity services worldwide. Public service began in 2021.[46]

#### Smaller LEO constellations

* BlueBird – A satellite-to-mobile communications constellation operated by AST SpaceMobile, in partnership with AT&T and Verizon[47]
* Globalstar – An operational constellation of 24 low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites for satellite phone and low-speed data communications, covering most of the world's landmass. The launch of the second-generation constellation was completed on February 6, 2013.
* Iridium — an operational constellation of 66 cross-linked satellites in a polar orbit, used to provide satellite phone and low-speed data services over the entire surface of Earth. Iridium NEXT, a second-generation constellation of the communications satellites, was completed on January 11, 2019.
* Lynk Global – A direct-to-mobile constellation of five satellites designed to connect standard mobile phones.
* OneWeb – A low Earth orbit satellite internet constellation comprising 648 operational satellites. The system became operational in 2023 and is operated by Eutelsat.
* Orbcomm — an operational constellation used to provide global asset monitoring and messaging services from its constellation of 29 LEO communications satellites orbiting at 775 km

#### Non-LEO constellations

* O3b mPOWER – A medium Earth orbit communications satellite constellation operated by SES providing broadband connectivity services.
* Viasat, Inc. — a current broadband satellite provider operating 9 satellites in geostationary orbit providing fixed, ground mobile, and airborne antennas

### Planned

* Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) — planned multi-orbit satellite internet constellation to be deployed by the European Union by 2027.[48]
* Lightspeed — Broadband constellation by Telesat, to be deployed starting in 2026.
* OQ Technology — A Luxembourg-based company developing a 5G Non-Terrestrial Network that is expected to consist of 48 satellites in 2027 and 150 satellites in 2029.[49]
* Rassvet — developed by Russian aerospace company Bureau 1440, developing a low Earth orbit constellation for high-speed broadband data transmission. As of 2026, 32 Rassvet-3 production satellites have been launched (with 31 active in orbit). The project aims to deploy over 250 satellites by 2027 to begin commercial service, expanding to more than 900 satellites by 2035.
* Sfera — a satellite constellation project of the Russian Federation, with plans for up to 640 satellites. Test launch on October 23, 2022.
* TeraWave — a Blue Origin project with 5280 satellites in LEO and 128 satellites in MEO with the first deployments planned for 2027.[50]
* UASAT — first launch scheduled for October 2026, with aims of launching 120 satellites by 2027.
* Honghu-3 — joint venture between Hong Qing Tech (48% owned by LandSpace) and LandSpace with 10000 satellites in LEO.[51][52][53]

### Defunct

* Teledesic — a former (1990s) venture to accomplish broadband satellite internet services

## See also

* Satellite navigation
* Satellite constellation
* Light pollution
* Two-way communication satellite constellations
* Satellite Internet access

## References

1. ↑ Henry, Caleb (25 June 2019). "Megaconstellation ventures cautious about deployment milestones". SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/megaconstellation-ventures-cautious-about-deployment-milestones/. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "NSR Reports China's Ambitious Constellation of 300 Small Satellites in LEO". SatNews. 8 March 2018. http://www.satnews.com/story.php?number=257303683. Retrieved 24 March 2018. "The most visible or at least, the most talked about LEO contenders stem from the U.S. and Canada, numbering at least 11 with planned satellites to be deployed at around 18,000."
3. ↑ Young, Makena; Thadani, Akhil (December 1, 2022). Low Orbit, High Stakes: All-In on the LEO Broadband Competition. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). https://aerospace.csis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/221214_Young_LowOrbit_HighStakes-min.pdf.
4. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (15 February 2013). "Satellite Internet faster than advertised, but latency still awful". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/satellite-internet-faster-than-advertised-but-latency-still-awful/#p3n. Retrieved 24 March 2018. "Satellite latency is 638ms, 20 times higher than terrestrial broadband."
5. ↑ "Latency- why is it a big deal for Satellite Internet?". VSAT Systems. 2013. http://www.vsat-systems.com/satellite-internet-explained/latency.html. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
6. ↑ "What is the difference between terrestrial (land based) Internet and satellite Internet service?". Network Innovation Associates. 2014. http://www.niasat.com/q-what-is-the-difference-between-terrestrial-land-based-internet-and-satellite-internet-service/. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
7. ↑ Boucher, Marc (3 June 2014). "Will Google Build a Satellite Constellation?". SpaceRef Business. http://spaceref.biz/company/will-google-build-a-satellite-constellation.html. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
8. ↑ Winkler, Rolfe; Pasztor, Andy (11 July 2014). "Elon Musk's Next Mission: Internet Satellites SpaceX, Tesla Founder Explores Venture to Make Lighter, Cheaper Satellites". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-next-mission-internet-satellites-1415390062. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
9. ↑ Petersen, Melody (16 January 2015). "Elon Musk and Richard Branson invest in satellite-Internet ventures". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-satellite-entrepreneurs-20150117-story.html. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
10. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (2017-10-04). "SpaceX and OneWeb broadband satellites raise fears about space debris". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/spacex-and-oneweb-broadband-satellites-raise-fears-about-space-debris/. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
11. ↑ Sheetz, Michael (4 April 2019). "Amazon wants to launch thousands of satellites so it can offer broadband internet from space". CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/04/amazon-project-kuiper-broadband-internet-small-satellite-network.html. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
12. ↑ Amazon lays out constellation service goals, deployment and deorbit plans to FCC, Caleb Henry, SpaceNews, 8 July 2019, accessed 19 September 2019.
13. ↑ "Russia to start deploying new cluster of Sfera next-generation satellites from 2021". https://tass.com/science/1217351.
14. ↑ ""SCOPE" of common interests". https://www.roscosmos.ru/29535/.
15. ↑ Jones, Andrew (27 July 2021). "Chinese rocket company Space Pioneer secures major funding ahead of first launch". SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/chinese-rocket-company-space-pioneer-secures-major-funding-ahead-of-first-launch/.
16. ↑ Grush, Loren (26 August 2020). "A future with tens of thousands of new satellites could 'fundamentally change' astronomy: report" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21401455/satellite-mega-constellations-astronomy-spacex-amazon-oneweb-bright-internet-space. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 de Selding, Peter B. (11 January 2021). "GROUP CONVERSION, OR PAY US & WE BELIEVE? SES, EUTELSAT, HISPASAT SAY THEY'D INVEST IN EU LEO BROADBAND PROJECT". Space Intel Report. https://www.spaceintelreport.com/group-conversion-or-pay-us-we-believe-ses-eutelsat-hispasat-say-theyd-invest-in-eu-leo-broadband-project/. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
18. ↑ SES, Lynk Global plot D2D boost Mobile World Live 11 March 2025. Accessed 30 April 2025
19. ↑ Clark, Stephen (18 October 2022). "Failure of Japan's Epsilon rocket blamed on attitude control system". Spaceflight Now. https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/10/18/failure-of-japans-epsilon-rocket-blamed-on-attitude-control-system/.
20. ↑ del Portillo, Inigo; Cameron, Bruce G.; Crawley, Edward F. (2019-06-01). "A technical comparison of three low earth orbit satellite constellation systems to provide global broadband" (in en). Acta Astronautica 159: 123–135. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2019.03.040. ISSN 0094-5765. Bibcode: 2019AcAau.159..123D. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576518320368.
21. ↑ Bhattacherjee, Debopam; Singla, Ankit (2019-12-03). "Network topology design at 27,000 km/Hour". Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies. CoNEXT '19. Orlando, Florida: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 341–354. doi:10.1145/3359989.3365407. ISBN 978-1-4503-6998-5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359989.3365407.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Bhattacherjee, Debopam; Aqeel, Waqar; Bozkurt, Ilker Nadi; Aguirre, Anthony; Chandrasekaran, Balakrishnan; Godfrey, P. Brighten; Laughlin, Gregory; Maggs, Bruce et al. (2018-11-15). "Gearing up for the 21st century space race". Proceedings of the 17th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks. HotNets '18. Redmond, WA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 113–119. doi:10.1145/3286062.3286079. ISBN 978-1-4503-6120-0.
23. ↑ Handley, Mark (2018-11-15). "Delay is Not an Option". Proceedings of the 17th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks. HotNets '18. Redmond, WA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 85–91. doi:10.1145/3286062.3286075. ISBN 978-1-4503-6120-0. https://doi.org/10.1145/3286062.3286075.
24. ↑ Heaven, Douglas (7 November 2018). "The first detailed look at how Elon Musk's space internet could work" (in en-US). https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24032033-300-the-first-detailed-look-at-how-elon-musks-space-internet-could-work/.
25. ↑ Handley, Mark (2019-11-14). "Using ground relays for low-latency wide-area routing in megaconstellations". Proceedings of the 18th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks. HotNets '19. Princeton, NJ, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 125–132. doi:10.1145/3365609.3365859. ISBN 978-1-4503-7020-2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3365609.3365859.
26. ↑ Press, Larry (December 30, 2019). "Starlink Simulation Shows Low Latency Without Inter-Satellite Laser Links" (in en). http://www.circleid.com/posts/20191230_starlink_simulation_low_latency_without_intersatellite_laser_links/.
27. ↑ Grush, Loren (28 September 2018). "As satellite constellations grow larger, NASA is worried about orbital debris" (in en). The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/28/17906158/nasa-spacex-oneweb-satellite-large-constellations-orbital-debris.
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Williams, Andrew P.; Rotola, Giuliana (2021). "Bringing policy coherence to satellite constellation mitigations for space debris and astronomy" (in de). https://conference.sdo.esoc.esa.int/proceedings/sdc8/paper/208.
29. ↑ "About LSST | Rubin Observatory". 2 April 2013. https://www.lsst.org/about. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
30. ↑ Hainaut, Olivier R.; Williams, Andrew P. (1 April 2020). "Impact of satellite constellations on astronomical observations with ESO telescopes in the visible and infrared domains" (in en). Astronomy & Astrophysics 636: A121. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202037501. ISSN 0004-6361. Bibcode: 2020A&A...636A.121H. https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2020/04/aa37501-20/aa37501-20.html. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
31. ↑ Mróz, Przemek; Otarola, Angel; Prince, Thomas A.; Dekany, Richard; Duev, Dmitry A.; Graham, Matthew J.; Groom, Steven L.; Masci, Frank J. et al. (1 January 2022). "Impact of the SpaceX Starlink Satellites on the Zwicky Transient Facility Survey Observations" (in en). The Astrophysical Journal Letters 924 (2): L30. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac470a. ISSN 2041-8205. Bibcode: 2022ApJ...924L..30M.
32. ↑ Kimbrough, Adam. "Satellite constellations and radio astronomy". The Space Review. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3702/1. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
33. ↑ Zhang, Emily. "SpaceX's Dark Satellites Are Still Too Bright for Astronomers" (in en). Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacexs-dark-satellites-are-still-too-bright-for-astronomers/.
34. ↑ "Report Offers Roadmap to Mitigate Effects of Large Satellite Constellations on Astronomy | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. https://aas.org/press/report-offers-roadmap-mitigate-effects-large-satellite-constellations-astronomy.
35. ↑ "Astronomers stand up to satellite mega-constellations". BBC News. 4 February 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60262100.
36. ↑ "Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference" (in en). Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn. https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/announcements/2022/1.
37. ↑ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/centres/CPS/.
38. ↑ "Impacts of Large Satellite Constellations on Astronomy: Live Updates | American Astronomical Society" (in en). https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2021/08/impacts-large-satellite-constellations-astronomy-live-updates.
39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Lawrence, Andy; Rawls, Meredith L.; Jah, Moriba; Boley, Aaron; Di Vruno, Federico; Garrington, Simon; Kramer, Michael; Lawler, Samantha et al. (April 2022). "The case for space environmentalism" (in en). Nature Astronomy 6 (4): 428–435. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01655-6. ISSN 2397-3366. Bibcode: 2022NatAs...6..428L.
40. ↑ "Orbital space around Earth must be protected amid rise in satellites, say scientists" (in en). The Guardian. 22 April 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/22/orbital-space-earth-protected-scientists-satellites.
41. ↑ "Without sustainable practices, orbital debris will hinder space's gold rush". 2 March 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/02/without-sustainable-practices-orbital-debris-will-hinder-spaces-gold-rush/.
42. ↑ Chou, Yi Ching; Chen, Long; Wang, Feng; Wang, Hengzhi; Ma, Xiaoqiang; Ma, Sami; Liu, Jiangchuan (June 2024). "Orchestrating Sustainable and Service-Differentiable Satellite Networking: A Federated Cross-Orbit Approach". 2024 IEEE/ACM 32nd International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS). Guangzhou, China: IEEE. pp. 1–10. doi:10.1109/IWQoS61813.2024.10682914. ISBN 979-8-3503-5012-8.
43. ↑ Jones, Andrew (2024-02-02). "Shanghai firm behind G60 megaconstellation raises $943 million" (in en-US). https://spacenews.com/shanghai-firm-behind-g60-megaconstellation-raises-943-million/.
44. ↑ Jones, Andrew (2024-08-06). "China launches first satellites for Thousand Sails megaconstellation" (in en-US). https://spacenews.com/china-launches-first-satellites-for-thousand-sails-megaconstellation/.
45. ↑ Jones, Andrew (6 August 2024). "China launches first satellites for Thousand Sails megaconstellation". SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/china-launches-first-satellites-for-thousand-sails-megaconstellation/.
46. ↑ "SpaceX opens Starlink satellite Internet pre-orders to the public". Engadget. February 10, 2021. https://www.engadget.com/spacex-starlink-internet-preorders-121427490.html.
47. ↑ archit_tandon (2024-09-14). "AST SpaceMobile orbital launch of first five commercial satellites successful" (in en-US). https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/ast-spacemobile-orbital-launch-of-first-five-commercial-satellites-successful/.
48. ↑ "Press corner" (in en). https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en.
49. ↑ "Starlink alternative: Luxembourg's OQ Technology teams up with Telefónica Deutschland on mobile-via-satellite - RTL Today" (in en). 2026-06-08. https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/luxembourgs-oq-technology-teams-up-with-telefonica-deutschland-on-mobile-via-satellite-1317418012.
50. ↑ O'Kane, Sean (2026-01-21). "Blue Origin's satellite internet network TeraWave will move data at 6 Tbps" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/blue-origins-satellite-internet-network-terawave-will-move-data-at-6tbps/.
51. ↑ "ABOUT HONG QING - ABOUT US - 鸿擎科技". https://hongqing.tech/en/about.
52. ↑ "Chinese firm files plans for 10,000-satellite constellation". https://spacenews.com/chinese-firm-files-plans-for-10000-satellite-constellation/.
53. ↑ C, Jack. "China's Mega-Constellations Mega-Article" (in en). https://www.china-in-space.com/p/chinas-mega-constellations-mega-article.

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