Value chain · CLM-1183
In plain terms
ESA's 2026 report counts about 960 catalogued objects in geostationary orbit at the end of 2025, about 800 of them satellites, but nearly 9,700 objects pass through the protected zone around it at some point in their orbits. A separate chart counts about 1,870 satellites near geostationary orbit in 2025, more than half of them drifting.
The claim as recorded
ESA's Annual Space Environment Report, Issue 10.0 dated 1 May 2026, gives three different counts for the geostationary region, which describe three different populations and are not one number: at the end of 2025, 961 catalogued and asserted objects in its GEO orbit class (inclination 0 to 25 degrees, perigee and apogee both between 35,586 and 35,986 km), of which 799 are payloads; 9,667 objects intersecting the IADC GEO protected region (altitude 35,586 to 35,986 km, declination within 15 degrees), or 1,661 when each is weighted by the share of its orbit spent in the region; and, in a chart of 2025, 1,869 payloads near the geostationary orbit by orbital status, of which 1,057 were drifting and 581 in the three segments the chart groups as under control.
Scope and limits
THREE POPULATIONS, NOT ONE COUNT: none of the three may be quoted as 'the number of objects at GEO' or ranked against another as if they measured the same thing. The 1,869 payloads 'near the geostationary orbit' exceed both the 799 payloads in the GEO class and the 989 payloads intersecting the protected region, so Figure 6.35's population is wider than either, and the page does not define it; its chart title says 'Objects' where the caption says 'payloads'. Catalogued and asserted objects only (p.14): objects too small to track at GEO are outside every figure, and SRC-227 puts that tracking floor at slightly under 1 m (CLM-0749). A count, not a density or a collision probability.
What it assumes
The 1,869 total is arithmetic performed here over the nine segments of Figure 6.35 (357 + 191 + 33 + 128 + 50 + 23 + 27 + 3 + 1057), not a figure the source prints; each printed percentage reproduces as count / 1,869 to 0.1 per cent. The 581 controlled is 357 + 191 + 33, also arithmetic here. The Table 3.2 equivalent row sums to 1,660 against a printed 1,661, which is read as rounding of fractional equivalents.
Where it comes from
p.63, Table 3.1 "Number of objects orbiting Earth", GEO row by cell: 799, 26, 3, 8, 68, 0, 0, 0, 57, total 961 (columns PL, PF, PD, PM, RB, RF, RD, RM, UI as defined in Table 1.1, p.14). Same page, Table 3.2, GEOIADC (abs) total 9667; GEOIADC (eqv) row by cell 849, 179, 9, 18, 105, 41, 0, 1, 458, total 1661. Section heading, same page: "the status of the environment as of end of 2025". p.15 Table 1.2 GEO definition and Table 1.3 GEOIADC definition as paraphrased in the claim. p.22, verbatim: the equivalence factor "is computed as the ratio of the time spent in the protected region per orbit to the orbital period for each orbit". p.136, Figure 6.35 "Orbital evolution status of payloads near the Geostationary orbit during 2025", segments by cell: E-W and N-S controlled 357, E-W controlled only 191, drift controlled 33, librating around 75E 128, librating around 105W 50, librating around both points 23, highly inclined 27, indeterminate 3, drifting 1057.
Basis: catalogued and asserted object counts by orbit class and protected region, end of 2025; payload count by orbital status, 2025
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-011 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1183
CLM-1183, Energy Aperture, as of 2025-12.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-226
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