AI6YR BenFeb 4

Anyone know the total number of satellites currently in space? The numbers I see cite @planet4589 but haven't seen him post any updates here recently, and not sure where to look for any authoritative count. Was just trying to quantify this in an intelligence way for my students. (random craptastic, non-attributed Internet search says 9,450-ish Starlinks, plus 2,500 odd other things in the sky... but since no attribution, no idea if it's hallucinated or not).
(Update: 9,634 Starlinks per @sundogplanets , at least today on 2/3/2026)

Update to the update: Jonathan McDowell has this stats page, perfect!

https://planet4589.org/space/stats/

#space #satellites

Jonathan's Space Report | Space Statistics

Jonathan McDowell's new homepage

Show threadTom - KB9ENS
@ai6yr https://www.space-track.org/auth/login scoreboard doesn’t require login. Total resident space object count is 49,800.
Space-Track.org

Space-Track.Org

Feb 4 at 5:07amWeb
Show threadAI6YR BenFeb 4
@kb9ens Thanks!
Show threadTom - KB9ENSFeb 4
@ai6yr Tabular for those who don’t want to visit a USG website.
Show threadAI6YR BenFeb 4
@kb9ens Thanks! I borrowed some slides from someone else's presentation and realized how out of date the numbers were, lol...
Show threadTom - KB9ENSFeb 4
@ai6yr Lovely GAO report from a few years ago has some nice vis aids and also talks about the department’s efforts to replace SPADOC. Fascinating stuff… that the public isn’t really aware of much. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105920.pdf
Show threadAI6YR BenFeb 4
@kb9ens The slides I borrowed (admittedly 10 years old, lol) had a small fraction of what is up there now (!!!).