56 countries got their first satellite after 2010, 51 before

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

Researcher catalogue (GCAT), not a government source: Jonathan C. McDowell, General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects, Jonathan's Space Pages, Country statistics, table 'First orbiting satellites by owner country' (planet4589.org/space/stats/cy.html, updated 26 Oct 2026; catalogue release 1.8.9 per planet4589.org/space/gcat). Licence CC BY 4.0: data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat). What it measures: the date each owner country's first object reached Earth orbit (for a few, such as the USSR and New Zealand, a rocket stage) (launched, not registered). Owner country is GCAT's; it includes commercial owners, so some firsts are company satellites (Mauritius: Intelsat New Dawn; Ireland: Echostar 21; Papua New Guinea: ABS-3A; Monaco; Bermuda; Cayman Islands), and many newcomers' firsts are small cubesats released from the ISS or flown on other countries' rockets. GCAT lists 116 owners: 107 countries and 9 intergovernmental organisations (ESA's predecessor ESRO, EUMETSAT, the EU and others), which are left out. The USSR's 1957 first is shown on Russia; Czechoslovakia's 1978 first on Czechia. Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are not on the tile map. Map values are years from the first satellite to 2025 (progrss calculation), so yellow = 15 years or fewer = first in 2010 or later. Counts (progrss calculation from the table): 51 countries by the end of 2009, 56 from 2010 to 2025 (2017 the busiest year, 9 newcomers). Africa: 5 by 2009 (Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria), 13 since (Mauritius, Ghana, Angola, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Senegal, Botswana). Countries since 2010: Mauritius, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, North Korea, Azerbaijan, Austria, Ecuador, Estonia, Qatar, Peru, Bolivia, Lithuania, Belgium, Uruguay, Papua New Guinea, Monaco, Laos, Finland, Ghana, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Ireland, Slovakia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Angola, New Zealand, Kenya, Costa Rica, Bhutan, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Slovenia, Paraguay, Myanmar, Tunisia, Kuwait, Armenia, Moldova, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Oman, Senegal, Croatia, Botswana, Bahrain, Solomon Islands, Montenegro. First orbital launches by launch-vehicle operator country, same GCAT page: 15 countries plus Europe's ESRO (16 operators; includes the Cayman Islands as Sea Launch's flag, Italy on a US Scout rocket, and the UK, which last launched in 1971). Cross-check: the desk brief asks for one number checked against the UN register (UNOOSA) or ESA; UNOOSA's Online Index was unavailable and its state pages listed no objects, and ESA's Space Environment Report gives no country counts, so no such cross-check was possible (published with Mo's approval). The progrss vault's own GCAT load (release 1.8.8) gives the same first years. The third takeaway's last clause is Interpretation.