Top 10: Companies Using Orbital Tech
More than 500 satellites have been launched into space this year alone.
According to data from SpaceTrack, 509 satellites have been sent into orbit since 3 January 3 2026, joining the 17,435 active payloads tracked by Orbital Radar.
These satellites have been launched from all over the world, lifting off from hubs including Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, US; the Taiyuan, Wenchang and Jiuquan space centres in China; the Rocket Lab Launch Complex in Māhia, New Zealand; the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome, operated by Russia within Kazakhstan; as well as the International Space Station.
Launch locations and naming conventions – like China's ‘CZ’ payloads – frequently flag government-owned satellites. These state assets are typically deployed to support public infrastructure, from radio and television broadcasting to global data transmission.
However, a significant portion of these 509 payloads are built for commercial use. SpaceX’s high-speed internet venture, Starlink, leads the charge, having already deployed 144 satellites this year using its Falcon rocket fleet.
While the launch world is filled with colourful names – including rockets like Firefly, Vulcan, and Rocket Lab’s Electron (which recently flew under the mission title ‘The Cosmos Will See You Now’) – this Top 10 focuses on the corporate giants deploying the largest volume of hardware.
For the scope of this article, “orbital technology” refers strictly to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Often described as orbital data centres, these systems send and receive data to deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity across the globe.
10. Blue Origin
No. of active satellites: 0
Projected satellites: 51,600 (Project Sunrise) / 5,280 (TeraWave)
Company based in: Kent, Washington, US
CEO: David Limp
While Blue Origin currently has no active satellites in LEO, it is preparing to venture heavily into the satellite sector with a constellation of up to 51,600 AI satellites, known as Project Sunrise.
Intended to meet the ever-growing demand for AI workloads, this network will host orbital data infrastructure, marking a major expansion beyond core launch services.
To support this, Blue Origin is also preparing its TeraWave network. Rather than targeting consumer internet markets, this multi-orbit transport backbone is tailored for enterprise users, government agencies and terrestrial data centres.
By using optical inter-satellite links alongside Q- and V-band radio frequencies, TeraWave is designed to offer highly secure, symmetrical data speeds reaching up to 6Tbps, operating as an independent physical routing layer to safeguard global communications against subsea cable cuts.
9. Starcloud
No. of active satellites: 1
Projected satellites: 88,000
Company based in: Redmond, Washington, US
CEO: Philip Johnston
The tech start-up Starcloud made aerospace history by successfully placing a high-powered NVIDIA H100 graphics processing unit into orbit in November 2025, representing a big leap in space-bound compute power.
The firm – which has a total valuation of US$1.1bn as of March 2026 – is using this infrastructure to execute in-orbit AI training and real-time edge inference on synthetic-aperture radar data.
By capitalising on continuous solar exposure and infinite radiative cooling in the vacuum of space, Starcloud’s planned 88,000-satellite constellation seeks to alleviate terrestrial power grid congestion.
The architecture bypasses Earth-bound resource constraints to deliver sustainable, gigawatt-scale orbital data centres directly to global cloud providers.
8. AST SpaceMobile
No. of active satellites: 13
Projected satellites: 168
Company based in: Midland, Texas, US
CEO: Abel Avellan
Texas-based AST SpaceMobile is advancing its mission to eliminate global connectivity gaps by building the first space-based cellular broadband network.
Operating its commercial BlueBird satellites, the company aims to deliver seamless 4G and 5G connectivity directly to standard, unmodified smartphones without requiring specialised ground hardware.
This direct-to-device infrastructure is engineered to complement existing terrestrial networks, allowing mobile network operators to extend their coverage into remote land masses, maritime corridors and disaster zones.
The company has already executed the first-ever two-way satellite phone calls using standard mobile devices.
7. Apple
No. of active satellites: 24–31 (via Globalstar)
Projected satellites: 80+
Company based in: Cupertino, California, US
CEO: Tim Cook
Consumer technology giant Apple has integrated orbital capabilities directly into its flagship consumer ecosystem by partnering with satellite operator Globalstar.
Rather than launching its own proprietary hardware, Apple has financed and used a substantial portion of Globalstar’s LEO fleet to power its safety infrastructure.
This dedicated connection enables emergency SOS text messaging, roadside assistance and location sharing through the ‘Find My’ app in regions entirely devoid of cellular coverage.
The infrastructure relies on specialised spectrum allocations to bridge the gap between pocket-sized consumer devices and overhead satellite networks.
6. Iridium Communications
No. of active satellites: 66
Projected satellites: 75 (including on-orbit spares)
Company based in: McLean, Virginia, US
CEO: Matthew J. Desch
Iridium Communications operates a mature, cross-linked LEO network that provides total geographic coverage across the globe, including the poles.
The company’s architecture relies on an intricate mesh of interconnected satellites that route voice and data traffic entirely through space, bypassing the need for immediate ground infrastructure.
This system is predominantly deployed by aviation, maritime, military and humanitarian sectors requiring reliable, industrial-grade asset tracking and emergency communications.
Iridium continues to expand its market share by rolling out compact, next-generation hybrid IoT modules for commercial enterprise applications.
5. Airbus
No. of active satellites: 70
Projected satellites: 150+
Company based in: Blagnac, France
CEO: Guillaume Faury
European aerospace titan Airbus deploys its diverse orbital hardware across multiple domains through its Defence and Space division.
The company is a key player in high-resolution commercial Earth observation, operating advanced optical and radar satellite constellations like Pléiades Neo, which deliver precise geospatial intelligence to governmental and corporate entities.
Beyond imagery, Airbus uses its hardware for secure military communications, maritime surveillance and climate monitoring.
Plus, the company is actively collaborating with other European defence leaders on unified manufacturing initiatives to strengthen continental sovereignty in space-based intelligence infrastructure.
4. Planet Labs
No. of active satellites: 200
Projected satellites: 300+
Company based in: San Francisco, California, US
CEO: Will Marshall
Planet Labs has pioneered the high-cadence imaging sector by operating a vast fleet of compact Dove cubesats alongside high-resolution SkySat hardware.
The company uses this substantial orbital array to capture a complete, continuous daily scan of the Earth.
The resulting geospatial data repository is accessed by agricultural businesses for crop yield monitoring, defence agencies for border surveillance, and environmental organisations tracking deforestation or climate degradation.
Planet Labs continues to refresh its fleet with next-generation hyperspectral satellites to extract deeper analytical insights from the planet’s surface.
3. Amazon
No. of active satellites: 367
Projected satellites: 3,236
Company based in: Seattle, Washington, US
CEO: Andy Jassy
Amazon is rapidly scaling its LEO broadband network, officially rebranded as Amazon Leo, to deliver high-speed internet to unserved and underserved global communities.
The company is actively executing an aggressive launch campaign using a diverse fleet of heavy-lift rockets, including Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V.
To achieve high-throughput performance, Amazon Leo uses optical inter-satellite laser links capable of sustaining 100Gbps data transfers in space.
This constellation is being seamlessly integrated with AWS to offer enterprise, aviation and maritime customers ultra-low latency cloud connectivity, directly challenging established satellite internet providers while operating under strict international space-debris mitigation charters.
2. Eutelsat Group
No. of active satellites: 600
Projected satellites: 648 (Gen 1) / 1,000+ (Gen 2)
Company based in: Paris, France
CEO: Jean-François Fallacher
Following its merger with OneWeb, Eutelsat Group has established itself as a pioneer in multi-orbit connectivity by combining its legacy geostationary fleet with a massive LEO constellation.
Under its current strategic roadmap, the company is transitioning into a telco-aligned operator, offering Connectivity-as-a-Service to enterprise, maritime and aviation sectors.
Eutelsat’s current operational network provides robust, global broadband coverage, and the firm has already finalised refinancing structures to fund its upcoming Gen 2 fleet.
This next-generation architecture will incorporate advanced inter-satellite laser links to dramatically expand data capacity and seamlessly blend high-throughput orbital routing with terrestrial telecommunications grids.
1. SpaceX
No. of active satellites: 10,600
Projected satellites: 42,000
Company based in: Hawthorne, California, US
CEO: Elon Musk
SpaceX maintains an absolute monopoly on LEO traffic with its behemoth Starlink network, operating more active hardware than the rest of the world combined.
Leveraging its vertically integrated Falcon 9 launch infrastructure, the company deploys new batches of custom-built satellites at a relentless weekly cadence.
The Starlink network delivers high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across all seven continents, catering to millions of residential customers, commercial maritime fleets, major commercial airlines and defence operations via its Starshield subsidiary.
By rapidly iterating its satellite designs to feature advanced optical cross-links and direct-to-cell capabilities, SpaceX is effectively dictating the economic and operational rules of modern orbital commercialisation.
