As you read this there are about 2,000 satellites orbiting above our heads, and apart from an occasional glimpse in the night sky, they're pretty much invisible. But they have become a huge part of everyday life on Earth. Want to find your way around? Tap a button and your phone talks to a constellation of GPS satellites. Those stunning images of Arctic sea ice and animations of ocean-churning hurricanes? Satellite-based, of course. These days, the view from orbit is so ubiquitous that most of us have probably forgotten a time when it wasn't part of our perspective.Over the next few years, there's going to be even more hustle and bustle in orbit. By 2025 as many as 1,100 satellites could be launching each year-up from 365 in 2018. Just one project, SpaceX's ambitious Starlink, aims to fly 12,000 small satellites by 2027. It and similar projects aren't just crowding the skies-they're delivering a host of technological upgrades meant to improve life planetside.
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