What if there were no satellites?

Look up on a clear night. A bright dot gliding across the sky might be the space station. It is a satellite too!

Satellites help us every day. What if they were all gone? Let's find out what they do.

A satellite is anything that orbits a planet or star. The Moon is a natural satellite of Earth. But NASA says the word usually means a machine launched into space to circle Earth or another world, and thousands of them orbit Earth today.

So what if there were no satellites at all? How would we forecast the weather, find our way or call faraway friends? This is a thought experiment: satellites are working above us right now. Choose a path to explore weather forecasts, maps and GPS, and phones and TV.

NASA defines a satellite as any body orbiting a planet or star, but in everyday use the word means artificial spacecraft. ESA's space environment statistics (updated October 14, 2026) count about 15,900 satellites still working, and its MASTER-8 model estimates about 68,450 objects larger than 10 cm in Earth orbit (February 2026 reference population).

This thought experiment removes the working satellites. The evidence is what they do today, as NOAA, NASA and ESA describe it, and what people used before the first launch in 1957. How a modern world would adapt is an idea, not a prediction, and the lab does not model it.

Some satellites take pictures of clouds. Some help maps on phones. Some send TV and phone signals around the world.

Most satellites have an antenna to talk to Earth and solar panels for power.

NASA explains that some satellites photograph Earth to help meteorologists predict weather and track hurricanes. Others carry TV signals and phone calls around the world, and a group of more than 30 make up GPS, the Global Positioning System that helps phones find where you are.

Satellites can see huge areas of Earth at once, so they collect data faster than instruments on the ground. Most have an antenna to send and receive information and a power source such as solar panels, which turn sunlight into electricity.

Satellites serve Earth observation, communications, navigation and astronomy. Their vantage lets them survey large areas at once; above the atmosphere's clouds and dust, telescopes also see the universe more clearly. Most have an antenna and a power source, often solar panels.

Orbits differ by job. A geostationary satellite moves west to east over the equator at Earth's rotation rate, so it stays over one spot; NOAA's GOES satellites do this 22,236 miles up, together watching more than half the globe. Polar orbiters travel pole to pole and scan the whole planet in strips as Earth turns beneath them.

Imagine all the satellites switched off. Weather people might use balloons and ground stations more.

People might use paper maps and stars to find their way, like sailors long ago.

Imagine every satellite switching off at once. With no pictures of clouds and storms from space, weather forecasters might rely more on weather balloons and ground stations. Phones might no longer be able to use GPS to find where you are, so people might go back to paper maps and road signs.

TV and long-distance calls that travel by satellite might need other routes, such as wires. People managed before 1957, and these are ideas about how they might manage again, not predictions.

Each satellite service depends on specific data. NOAA's JPSS supplies the majority of data feeding U.S. numerical weather prediction, so forecasts might lean more on radiosondes and surface networks. GPS receivers need signals from four or more satellites to fix a position, so satellite navigation might no longer be available.

Long-distance broadcasts relayed by satellite might move to ground-based links. Even radiosondes report GPS position, and NOAA tracks them by GPS or by radio direction finding to measure winds, so their wind measurements might depend on the radio method. How far forecast accuracy or navigation would change is not modeled here; these consequences are ideas built on what each system depends on.

Satellites are very high up. From up there, they can see a big part of Earth at once.

Their signals can reach places that are very far apart.

Height is the secret. NASA explains that TV signals travel in straight lines, so before satellites they couldn't follow Earth's curve, and mountains or tall buildings could block them. Laying phone wires over long distances or under the ocean was difficult and costly.

With satellites, signals go up to a satellite and are sent back down almost instantly to places far away. And because satellites see wide areas at once, a weather satellite can watch a whole storm grow.

Altitude solves line-of-sight limits. NASA notes that broadcast signals travel in straight lines, escaping into space rather than following Earth's curvature and being blocked by terrain; long-distance and undersea wires were difficult and costly. A satellite relays signals up and back down almost instantly across long distances.

Orbit choice matters too. A satellite stays in orbit when its speed balances Earth's gravity. Geostationary weather satellites watch one region continuously, while NOAA's JPSS satellites circle pole to pole 14 times a day, covering the entire globe twice daily.

The first satellite, Sputnik 1, went up in 1957. Before that, people used stars, maps and weather balloons.

Now thousands of satellites help us every day.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, in 1957. NASA's Explorer 1, America's first, followed in 1958, and TIROS-1 sent the first TV picture of Earth from space in 1960.

Long before then, sailors used the stars to find their way, and since the late 1930s NOAA's National Weather Service has sent instruments up on weather balloons. It still launches them from 92 stations today. In October 2026, ESA counted about 15,900 working satellites in orbit.

Sputnik 1 (1957) began the space age; Explorer 1 (1958) carried a cosmic-ray sensor; Explorer 6 returned the first satellite picture of Earth in 1959 and TIROS-1 the first TV image in 1960. ESA counts about 7,370 successful launches since 1957.

Pre-satellite tools persist alongside satellites. NWS radiosondes, flown since the late 1930s, can rise above 35 km, and more than 800 upper-air stations worldwide launch them, usually at the same times each day; NWS operates 92. Ancient sailors navigated by the constellations long before GPS. In October 2026, ESA counted about 15,900 functioning satellites.