Satellites

A spotlight on the many satellites in orbit around the planet. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched into space on a rocket by the Soviet Union in 1957. A year later, the USA followed suit with Explorer. Today, there are more than 2,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, used mainly for telephony, television, radio and digital data transmission. A large number are also used for geoscientific research and meteorology.