The ten biggest satellite networks in orbit as of September 2026, ranked by the number of working satellites each one operates.
Quick answer: 1. Starlink, 2. OneWeb, 3. Amazon Leo (Project Kuiper), 4. Guowang (Xingwang), 5. Qianfan (G60 / Thousand Sails), 6. Planet (Dove, SkySat, Pelican), 7. Jilin-1, 8. Iridium, 9. Spire (Lemur), 10. HawkEye 360.
Low Earth orbit has changed more in the last seven years than in the previous sixty. One company, SpaceX, now operates more working satellites than the rest of the world combined, and Amazon and two Chinese state-backed broadband networks are building rivals as fast as rockets allow. This list ranks the ten largest constellations by active satellites, using astronomer Jonathan McDowell's constellation tracker as the single source. The gap between first and second place, roughly 9,670 against 636, is the story: broadband mega-constellations dominate the top of the table, and imaging, weather-data and phone networks make up the rest.
SpaceX has 9,670 Starlink satellites on station (2,418 Gen 1 and 7,252 Gen 2), out of 12,962 launched since 2019. That is about fifteen times the size of the next-largest network, and it is the largest constellation ever flown.
Eutelsat OneWeb operates 636 satellites, the only other broadband network that already has full global coverage. They fly at about 1,200 km, more than twice as high as Starlink, so each satellite covers a wider footprint and far fewer are needed.
Amazon's broadband network, renamed Amazon Leo from Project Kuiper, has 343 satellites on station at 590-630 km. It is the fastest-growing constellation on the list: more satellites are in orbit but still climbing to their working altitude, and Amazon's FCC licence covers 3,236.
China SatNet's state-owned Guowang network has 212 satellites on station, spread across shells from about 450 km to nearly 1,170 km. It is China's national answer to Starlink and is planned to grow to roughly 13,000 satellites.
Shanghai Spacesail's Qianfan network has 178 satellites on station. It is the second Chinese broadband mega-constellation, backed by the Shanghai municipal government and launched in batches since 2024.
Planet Labs runs 121 active imaging satellites, most of them shoebox-sized Dove cubesats that together photograph nearly the entire land surface of the Earth every day. It is the largest Earth-observation fleet on the list.
Chang Guang Satellite Technology operates 80 active Jilin-1 imaging satellites, which makes it China's largest commercial Earth-observation constellation. The fleet mixes high-resolution, video and wide-swath imagers.
Iridium has 67 active satellites providing satellite phone and data service with coverage of the entire globe, poles included. It was the original LEO mega-constellation of the 1990s, and the current satellites are second-generation Iridium NEXT spacecraft.
Spire Global operates 56 active Lemur cubesats. They collect radio-occultation weather data and track ships and aircraft by their AIS and ADS-B signals, and the data is sold to weather agencies and logistics firms.
HawkEye 360 has 37 active satellites, flown in clusters that pick up and geolocate radio signals from the ground. The data is used to find ships with their transponders switched off and to map GPS jamming.
| # | Name | Operator | Country | Purpose | Altitude | Active satellites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starlink | SpaceX | United States | Broadband internet | 340-573 km | 9,670 |
| 2 | OneWeb | Eutelsat OneWeb | United Kingdom / France | Broadband internet | 1,190-1,222 km | 636 |
| 3 | Amazon Leo (Project Kuiper) | Amazon | United States | Broadband internet | 590-630 km | 343 |
| 4 | Guowang (Xingwang) | China SatNet | China | Broadband internet | 454-1,168 km | 212 |
| 5 | Qianfan (G60 / Thousand Sails) | Shanghai Spacesail Technologies | China | Broadband internet | 500-1,069 km | 178 |
| 6 | Planet (Dove, SkySat, Pelican) | Planet Labs | United States | Earth imaging | 400-525 km | 121 |
| 7 | Jilin-1 | Chang Guang Satellite Technology | China | Earth imaging | 540-560 km | 80 |
| 8 | Iridium | Iridium Communications | United States | Satellite phone and data | About 780 km | 67 |
| 9 | Spire (Lemur) | Spire Global | United States | Weather data and ship/aircraft tracking | 410-500 km | 56 |
| 10 | HawkEye 360 | HawkEye 360 | United States | Radio-frequency monitoring | Low Earth orbit | 37 |
Ranked by the number of active satellites in each constellation as published by Jonathan McDowell (planet4589.org), data updated 28 September 2026. Ranks 1-5 use the 'on station' count from McDowell's mega-constellation table: satellites that have reached their working altitude. Satellites still raising their orbit or held in reserve are excluded, so these figures are conservative (for Starlink, 9,670 on station against about 11,130 in orbit). Ranks 6-10 use the 'active satellites' count from his large-constellation table. The two tables define 'active' slightly differently, but the difference does not change the order. Other trackers give different totals; CelesTrak's Kuiper group, for example, listed 446 objects on 29 September 2026 against McDowell's 343 on station. SpaceX's Starshield network for the US government is excluded because its satellite count is an outside estimate of a classified system rather than a published figure. Navigation systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou) are not in McDowell's constellation tables, so they are excluded to keep one counting basis. Each runs fewer than 50 satellites. Starlink Gen 1 and Gen 2 are counted as one constellation.
As of 28 September 2026, Jonathan McDowell's tracker counts 12,962 Starlink satellites launched and about 11,133 still in orbit, of which 9,670 are on station at their working altitude. The rest are still raising their orbits, held in reserve, or being retired.
Trackers count different things: every object launched, everything still in orbit, or only the satellites working at their operational altitude. This list uses the strictest of these, satellites on station or active, from one tracker, so that all ten are compared the same way.
Navigation systems cover the planet with a few dozen satellites in medium-Earth and higher orbits, so none comes close to the broadband networks. They are also not included in the constellation tracker this list uses, so they are left out to keep one counting basis. BeiDou, the largest of them, had 47 satellites in orbit on CelesTrak in September 2026.
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