YFARMX SPACE

YFarmX Space · Satellites desk

Satellites

The working machines of orbit: constellations, Earth observation, communications and navigation, and the ground segment that keeps them useful.

State of play3missions on this desk19tracked across the section2026-08-14last verified
On this desk · 3The desk's missions and where each stands.
  1. orbitalNISAR · ISRO / NASA · Earth orbit
  2. orbitalStarlink constellation · SpaceX · Low Earth orbit
  3. orbitalGPS III · US Space Force / Lockheed Martin · Medium Earth orbit

The hardware

Model of a communications satellite

Communications satellite

Foil-wrapped bus, twin deployable arrays and a steerable main dish.

  • A foil-wrapped box bus with two solar wings on a single rotation axis
  • The steerable main dish points at Earth; two smaller horn feeds sit beside it
  • A radiator on the anti-sun face and a station-keeping thruster cluster at the base
Class
Satellites
Built scale
4.9 m across the solar wings
Where the class lives
Geostationary orbit, 35,786 km up
Geometry
11,260 triangles, modelled as real parts

The class in service: hundreds of communications satellites hold geostationary slots — fleets from Intelsat, SES and Eutelsat among them, the largest spanning over 30 m across their wings. The model is the class, not any of them.

Satellites desk →Orbit desk →

Illustration · class archetype · real geometry

Missions on this desk · 3
Artist's concept of the NISAR radar satellite in orbit with its antenna reflector deployed, restyled onto a dark starfield.

NISAR

orbital operations

ISRO / NASA · Earth orbit

The NASA-ISRO radar observatory is in its science phase, mapping change across Earth's land and ice, with S-band data now flowing to users.

More

NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, launched on 30 July 2025 on ISRO's GSLV-F16 and has entered its science phase. ISRO's site notes that S-band SAR data products are now available to users, and the agency is running training on SAR data analysis alongside its wider programme. The dual-frequency radar observatory maps changes to Earth's land and ice surfaces.

last verified 2026-08-06 · Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, restyled

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Official render of a GPS III satellite above Earth, restyled onto a dark starfield.

GPS III

orbital operations

US Space Force / Lockheed Martin · Medium Earth orbit

The block that completed America's navigation constellation: the tenth and final GPS III satellite launched in April 2026, taking the active fleet to 32.

More

The US Space Force completed the GPS III block on 21 April 2026 with the launch of the tenth satellite, stating the constellation now stands at 32 active spacecraft with added redundancy. Lockheed Martin, which builds the satellites in Denver, is under contract for 12 next-generation GPS IIIF spacecraft, and says GPS IIIF will add a Regional Military Protection signal with over 60 times the anti-jam capability of legacy vehicles for qualified military users.

Next: GPS IIIF production, 12 satellites under contract at Lockheed Martin

last verified 2026-08-08 · Image: US Air Force, restyled

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