HOW TO READ THE TABLES

Over tablets and phones, the tables are best read in landscape (horizontal) screen mode.

Each table displays the artificial objects in chronological order of deployment.

COSPAR ID: Stands for ‘Committee on Space Research Identifier’. It is an international number assigned to man-made objects launched in space. It consists of the launch year, a three-digit incrementing launch number of that year and a letter code to distinguish objects between them. Only successful launches are given a COSPAR ID.

name: Official name of the object. In the case of small objects, their type names are used. A ‘plus’ sign is used when several objects are still fixed together. Information in brackets are either engine names, serials or reference.

type: Object type. In the case of small objects, it is identical to its name.

mission: Official name of the mission with alternate known mission names in brackets.

quantity: Number of objects identified. A question mark is used if no information is available and ‘scattered’ if the object was destroyed (crash, impact, collision or explosion).

mass (kg, upcoming): Dry mass, given in kilogram, of the object as propellant is assumed to be depleted at EOM (mission rules, leaks, fuel tank ruptures, etc.) and in any case not considered as artificial. A dash sign means that the mass is included into that of the main object.

status: Last known condition of the object, see examples below.

activeobject that is still functioning and communicating with the Earth
assumednot confirmed but highly probable
crashedobject that was supposed to land but was destroyed on its way down
defunctobject that is not in use anymore as its energy is now depleted
discardedobject that was seperated and abandoned either in space or on a surface
EOMEnd Of Mission
hard landingobject that has not achieved a nominal landing but did not crash either
impactdiscarded object while in altitude (e.g. heatshields)
object whose goal was to impact (e.g. impactors)
object that was intentionally crashed at EOM (e.g. orbiters)
incinerateddestroyed during atmospheric entry
landedobject that has achieved its goal to land
LOSLoss Of Signal
soft landingobject that was not supposed to land but did achieve this goal intact
light objects such as parachutes

location (Apollo tables only): Last known location of the object relative to the Lunar Module Descent Stage.

date/epoch (UTC): Date of the last known condition of the object, given in Universal Time.