Overview
Majority of UK's satellites are launched by commercial enterprises OneWeb, O3b Networks and INMARSAT. These are the 345 satellites operated or owned by organizations in United Kingdom, based on the interactive table representation of the UCS Satellite Database compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientist (UCS).
Most of these satellites from United Kingdom are launched for commercial use (97.4%) and for the purpose of communications (95.4%).Majority of these satellites are LEO satellites, with around 306 (88.7%) launched so far.
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Insights from United Kingdom's Satellite Dataset
Which year saw the most satellites launched for United Kingdom?
Who operates or owns the most satellites in United Kingdom?
Which rocket has delivered the most satellites from United Kingdom to space?
Which launch site has launched the most satellites from United Kingdom to space?
What is the most common type of satellite orbit?
Apogee, Perigee & Period
Satellite Mass
Heaviest satellite launched by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. into space at 447 kg
A commercial satellite, DMC 3-1 is operated by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. of United Kingdom for the purpose of earth observation (Optical Imaging).
Constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (UK), it was launched into space using PSLV as the launch vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 10 July 2015. DMC 3-1 orbits around the Earth as a sun-synchronous LEO satellite.
Designed with an operational lifetime of 10 years, DMC 3-1 has a launch mass of 447 kg and navigates with the COSPAR ID 2015-032A and NORAD ID 40715.
Taking 98 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 636km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 663km. The eccentricity of the orbit is 1.92E-03 and it orbits at an inclination of 98 degrees to the equatorial plane of the Earth.
Heaviest satellite launched by United Kingdom into space at 6,105 kg
INMARSAT 5 F2 is a commercial satellite operated by INMARSAT, Ltd. (United Kingdom) for the purpose of communications.
Constructed by Boeing Corp. (USA), it was launched into space on 1 February 2015 using Proton M as the launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome. INMARSAT 5 F2 orbits around the Earth as a GEO satellite.
Designated with COSPAR ID 2015-005A and NORAD ID 40384, INMARSAT 5 F2 is designed to operate in space for a lifetime of 15 years. It has a launch mass of 6,105 kg and dry mass of 3,360 kg.
Taking 1,436 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 35,784km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 35,789km. The eccentricity of the orbit is 5.93E-05.
With generated usable power of 13000 watts, INMARSAT 5 F2 orbits along the longitude of -55 degrees.
Operated by InSpace of United Kingdom, Faraday Phoenix is a commercial satellite launched for the purpose of platform.
Constructed by GOMSpace (Denmark), it was launched into space on 30 June 2021 using Falcon 9 as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. Faraday Phoenix orbits around the Earth as a sun-synchronous LEO satellite.
Faraday Phoenix has a launch mass of 10 kg and navigates with the COSPAR ID 2021-059AX and NORAD ID 48924.
With an orbital eccentricity of 1.38E-03, the satellite's perigee, which is the point of the orbit closest to the Earth's center of mass, is 513km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 532km. It takes 95 minutes to orbit the Earth at an inclination of 98 degrees to the equatorial plane of the Earth.
Second heaviest equatorial satellite launched into space at 650 kg
Designed for communications, O3b FM09 is a commercial satellite operated by O3b Networks Ltd. (United Kingdom).
Constructed by Thales Alenia Space (France), it was launched into space on 18 December 2014 using Soyuz-ST-B as the launch vehicle from Guiana Space Center. 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.
Using its self-produced usable power of 1500 watts, O3b FM09 takes 288 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 8,063km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 8,068km. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 1.73E-04.
Heaviest satellite launched by OneWeb Satellites into space at 148 kg
OneWeb-0013 is a commercial satellite operated by OneWeb Satellites (United Kingdom) for the purpose of communications.
Delivered via Soyuz-2.1b (launch vehicle) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, it was launched into space on 6 February 2020 and orbits the Earth as a polar LEO satellite. OneWeb-0013 was constructed by OneWeb Satellites/Airbus (UK).
With a launch mass of 148kg, OneWeb-0013 is designed to operate in space for a lifetime of 5 years. It orbits around the Earth with the COSPAR ID 2020-008A and NORAD ID 45131.
Taking 94 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 1,215km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 1,220km. The eccentricity of the orbit is 3.29E-04 and it orbits at an inclination of 87 degrees to the equatorial plane of the Earth.
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