List of Asian Countries with the Most Satellites: Where Does Indonesia Rank?

Countries worldwide continue to advance their space technology and create domestically produced satellites to support space-based communication and observation networks.

The world's first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1, belonging to the Soviet Union, launched on October 4, 1957. This satellite was not a communication satellite. Sputnik 1 successfully identified the density of the upper atmosphere by measuring orbital changes.

The world's first communication satellite was NASA's Syncom 3. This satellite was launched in August 1964 by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat), a consortium of nations collaborating to operate communication satellites.

Currently, many countries possess their own satellites, both for communication and for Earth observation, weather monitoring, and navigation. Indonesia is among the countries with the highest number of satellites in Asia. Quoting N2YO.com, here are the 10 countries with the most satellites in Asia in 2021:

1. China: 487 satellites
2. Japan: 197 satellites
3. India: 101 satellites
4. South Korea: 25 satellites
5. Israel: 22 satellites
6. Taiwan: 18 satellites
7. Indonesia: 17 satellites
8. Saudi Arabia: 15 satellites
9. United Arab Emirates: 13 satellites
10. Turkey: 13 satellites

Palapa was Indonesia's first satellite, launched on July 9, 1976. The Palapa satellite was launched to improve communication systems such as telephone, television, and telegram services. Indonesia's latest satellite, Nusantara Satu, officially entered orbit on February 19, 2019. Other operational satellites include Lapan-A2, Lapan-A3, Telkom-2, Telkom-3S, Telkom-4 (Merah Putih), BRIsat, and LAPAN-Tubsat.

(Read More: US and China Compete in Launching Rockets into Outer Space)