When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The number of spacecraft orbiting Earth is rising fast thanks to the emergence of private ...

The view of Earth from space is famously familiar—bright blue ocean, swirling gyres of white clouds, touches of terrestrial ...

Satellites in low-Earth orbit play a key role in helping us study and understand our planet. Orbiting at altitudes usually between 100 and 1200 miles (160 and 2,000 kilometers), these satellites are ...

One of the most important satellite launches of all time was that of Sputnik. When the Soviet satellite became the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth on October 4, 1957, space must have seemed ...

Eruptions from the sun are shortening the lives of satellites in Earth orbit, particularly large constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink – which could be both beneficial and a cause for concern. The sun ...

September's partial solar eclipse was not just caught by eager skywatchers on Earth but also by satellites orbiting high above. A striking view of the partial solar eclipse that happened on September ...

Quasi-moons are not real moons and don't actually orbit the Earth, although they sometimes appear to do so for short periods of time, Phil Nicholson, professor of astronomy at Cornell University, told ...

In the last five years, the number of satellites orbiting Earth has more than doubled and will likely double again within a similar timespan, thanks to the efforts of private companies such as SpaceX.