Overview
Most MEO satellites are launched for military and commercial use (45.3%) and for the purpose of navigation and global positioning (83.5%).
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Insights from the MEO satellite dataset
Which year saw the most MEO satellites launched?
Who operates or owns the most MEO satellites?
Which country operates or owns the most MEO satellites?
Which rocket has delivered the most MEO satellites to space?
Which launch site has launched the most MEO satellites to space?
What is the most common type of satellite orbit?
Apogee, Perigee & Period
Satellite Mass
Highlights on some of the military and commercial satellites:
Heaviest satellite launched by Ariane 5 ES into space at 715 kg
Designed for navigation and global positioning, Galileo FOC FM19 is a commercial satellite operated by European Space Agency (ESA) (ESA).
Delivered via Ariane 5 ES (launch vehicle) from Guiana Space Center, it was launched into space on 25 July 2018 and orbits the Earth as a non-polar inclined MEO satellite. Galileo FOC FM19 was constructed by OHB-System GmbH, SSTL (Germany/UK).
Designed with an operational lifetime of 12 years, Galileo FOC FM19 has a launch mass of 715 kg and navigates with the COSPAR ID 2018-060C and NORAD ID 43566.
Taking 840 minutes to orbit the Earth, the satellite's perigee, which is the point of the orbit closest to the Earth's center of mass, is 23,233km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 23,250km. The eccentricity of the orbit is 2.87E-04 and it orbits at an inclination of 56 degrees to the equatorial plane of the Earth.
Second heaviest equatorial satellite launched into space at 650 kg
A commercial satellite, O3b FM09 is operated by O3b Networks Ltd. of United Kingdom for the purpose of communications.
Constructed by Thales Alenia Space (France), it was launched into space using Soyuz-ST-B as the launch vehicle from Guiana Space Center on 18 December 2014. O3b FM09 orbits around the Earth as a equatorial MEO satellite.
O3b FM09 has a launch mass of 650 kg and navigates with the COSPAR ID 2014-083D and NORAD ID 40351.
With an orbital eccentricity of 1.73E-04, the satellite's perigee, which is the point of the orbit closest to the Earth's center of mass, is 8,063km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 8,068km. O3b FM09 takes 288 minutes to orbit the Earth with its self-generated usable power of 1500 watts.
Get more insights from these satellite datasets
Full datasets: All satellites by launch date | The Heaviest Satellites That Are Launched to Space
By Use Type: Civil-use satellites | Commercial satellites | Government satellites | Military satellites
By Country: USA | UK | France | Germany | Japan | China | Russia | Australia | Canada
By Orbit Class/Type: LEO satellites | MEO satellites | GEO satellites | Elliptical orbit | Polar orbit | Equatorial orbit | Non-polar inclined orbit | Sun-synchronous orbit | Molniya orbit
By Operators: SpaceX | EUTELSAT | SES | European Space Agency (ESA) | Planet Labs | Iridium | Spire Global | OneWeb | Swarm Technologies | NASA - Dataset of Satellites Launched (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) | Canadian Space Agency (CSA) - Dataset of Satellites Launched
By Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 | Ariane 5 | Ariane 5 ECA | Delta 2 | Dnepr | Electron | Falcon Heavy | Long March 2C | Long March 2D | Long March 3B | Pegasus | Proton | Proton M | PSLV | Rokot | Soyuz | Soyuz-2.1b | Vega
By Launch Vehicle: Cape Canaveral | Baikonur Cosmodrome | Guiana Space Center | International Space Station | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center | Plesetsk Cosmodrome | Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 | Satish Dhawan Space Centre | Taiyuan Launch Center | Vandenberg AFB | Xichang Satellite Launch Center | Boeing Satellite Systems | Airbus Defense and Space | EADS Astrium | Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems | Space Systems/Loral | Surrey Satellite Technology | Technical University Berlin | Thales Alenia Space
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