FOUR CONSTELLATIONS. ONE CONNECTED WORLD.
Finding our place in space.
Explore the satellites behind everyday navigation, from the first GPS launches to the latest generation.
THE LAUNCH TIMELINE
1978 — 2026
Zoom into a chapter.
Drag across the overview or adjust the years below.
Four paths to global navigation.
BEHIND THE SIGNALS
A new chapter for
a 2014 exploration.
This timeline revisits Igor’s World Space Week Croatia visualization, with updated catalog records and a closer view of each launch.
About this archive
Launch dates and spacecraft identifiers are drawn from the International GNSS Service and Jonathan McDowell’s General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects.
Counts represent catalogued spacecraft, including retired satellites and test vehicles. They are not counts of active satellites. GLONASS mass simulators are excluded. Launch failures and untracked payloads may be absent. 2026 is a partial year.