Ever since 1958, the number of low Earth satellites in orbit has grown at a much faster rate than those of the deeper space orbits. This is because of the relative ease and cheaper price tag of launching orbits closer to the surface of the Earth.
Even so, the chart shows an explosion of low Earth objects in orbit since the mid 2010s, further widening the gap. While the high Earth, medium Earth, and geostationary orbits have continued their linear growth, the low Earth orbit shows clear exponential growth in recent times.
What is causing this recent growth? Progress in rocket technology, largely headed by SpaceX, is making launches cheaper than ever. With this brings a burgeoning industry – low latency satellite internet. By having a network of low orbit satellites, high speed internet is brought to even the remotest corners of the Earth.
Two companies leading this movement, Starlink and OneWeb, each plan to launch more than 40,000 satellites in the coming years. So our skies are certainly set to become busier and busier.