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How much space debris is in orbit?

As of October 17, 2026, the GCAT catalogue tracks 34,337 objects in Earth orbit. 20,070 are payloads, working or not, and the other 14,267 are spent rocket stages (2,111), fragments of debris (10,698) and small components (1,458).

34,337

Tracked objects in Earth orbit

10,698

Pieces of debris

2,111

Spent rocket bodies

42%

Not working satellites

An illustration of broken satellite pieces and debris orbiting Earth — Illustration of space debris orbiting Earth.

What is up there

Payloads20,070 (58.5%)
Rocket bodies2,111 (6.1%)
Debris10,698 (31.2%)
Components1,458 (4.2%)

Only objects big enough to be tracked are counted. There are many more fragments too small to catalogue.

How the total has changed

At the end of 1990 the catalogue held 12,330 objects in Earth orbit. At the end of 2025 it held 31,661.

Tracked objects in Earth orbit at the end of each year. Debris, rocket bodies and components are shown in pink, payloads in blue.

All tracked objectsDebris, rocket bodies and components

Data table

Objects in Earth orbit at year end
Year	Payloads	Rocket bodies	Debris	Components	Total
1990	1,916	1,060	8,015	1,339	12,330
1991	1,954	1,089	8,255	1,282	12,580
1992	1,993	1,135	8,549	1,285	12,962
1993	2,042	1,177	10,359	1,299	14,877
1994	2,137	1,225	11,305	1,343	16,010
1995	2,212	1,259	11,519	1,349	16,339
1996	2,281	1,300	11,412	1,365	16,358
1997	2,401	1,342	11,897	1,354	16,994
1998	2,522	1,360	11,731	1,337	16,950
1999	2,616	1,373	15,321	1,303	20,613
2000	2,692	1,386	15,550	1,335	20,963
2001	2,710	1,387	15,708	1,263	21,068
2002	2,753	1,386	15,542	1,254	20,935
2003	2,817	1,409	15,369	1,277	20,872
2004	2,870	1,424	15,281	1,316	20,891
2005	2,914	1,440	15,173	1,312	20,839
2006	2,984	1,472	15,910	1,348	21,714
2007	3,072	1,503	15,898	1,396	21,869
2008	3,149	1,537	15,352	1,420	21,458
2009	3,242	1,572	15,271	1,450	21,535
2010	3,317	1,607	15,089	1,484	21,497
2011	3,402	1,634	14,985	1,531	21,552
2012	3,501	1,659	14,837	1,543	21,540
2013	3,665	1,690	14,578	1,582	21,515
2014	3,831	1,721	14,265	1,594	21,411
2015	3,976	1,758	13,972	1,603	21,309
2016	4,118	1,790	13,903	1,609	21,420
2017	4,507	1,823	13,823	1,621	21,774
2018	4,954	1,887	14,068	1,659	22,568
2019	5,263	1,917	14,103	1,658	22,941
2020	6,389	1,941	13,937	1,675	23,942
2021	8,025	1,973	13,716	1,687	25,401
2022	10,086	2,024	12,709	1,659	26,478
2023	12,259	2,044	11,612	1,593	27,508
2024	13,948	2,049	11,423	1,505	28,925
2025	17,304	2,082	10,796	1,479	31,661

Whose rocket bodies and debris

The countries responsible for most of the rocket bodies, debris and components in orbit.

United States4,610 (32.3%)
China4,329 (30.3%)
Russia2,681 (18.8%)
Soviet Union1,811 (12.7%)
France455 (3.2%)

Where it orbits

Upper low Earth orbit (600 to 2,000 km)10,483 (73.5%)
Highly elliptical orbit951 (6.7%)
Medium Earth orbit919 (6.4%)
Lower low Earth orbit (80 to 600 km)712 (5.0%)

Sources and method

GCAT by Jonathan McDowell, CC BY 4.0. Updated October 17, 2026. Data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat).
Counts use the GCAT current catalogue: objects whose status is in Earth orbit, grouped by GCAT object type (payload, rocket body, debris, component). Year-end counts use launch and decay dates.