As we gear up for an era where space travel becomes more common thanks to the efforts of companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, territory that was unchartered just a few decades ago could soon become commonplace. Even those of us with no interest in traveling to space have come to rely on The Final Frontier more so than ever before, thanks to an increasing number of services that rely on satellites orbiting the Earth. Cell phones and in-dash navigation systems rely on GPS satellites, Dish and DirecTV obviously use satellite feeds, and satellite communications systems offered by the likes of Inmarsat and Iridium continue to proliferate across various industries. Just how crowded is it getting up there above the Earth’s atmosphere?
The answer: Pretty crowded.
Vala Afshar, chief marketing officer of network infrastructure company Extreme Networks, recently posted a fascinating image on Twitter. Simply put, the image shows every single satellite in space that is currently orbiting Earth, in one graphic.
The picture speaks for itself:
