• Question: How many satellites are in Earth's orbit?

    Asked by 299trn28 to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 9 Oct 2015.
    • Photo: Columbus Flight Directors

      Columbus Flight Directors answered on 9 Oct 2015:

      Simon: Hi 299rn28!

      Thousands!:

      Take a look at this:

      http://www.popsci.com/now-you-can-see-all-space-junk-floating-around-earth-real-time

      You may not realise it but if you live at high Northern or Southern Latitudes (like in the UK or Beth in Antarctica) you can see a satellite on a clear night almost every 5minutes! The best time is just after dark in the Summer. That’s because most of them are Polar Orbiting satellites!

      Check it out for yourself the next clear night… look for objects moving north to south or south to north. You know they are not planes because they do not flash with different colours.

      Most likely it will be a constant white light which can get brighter or darker depending if the satellite is moving in or out of Earths Shadow.

      You can also see the ISS like this during Tim Peakes Misson:

      https://principia.org.uk/iss-sightings/

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