As of 2026, the global landscape of operational satellites reflects a clear 'one superpower, multiple strong players' hierarchy. The United States sits firmly at the top, driven largely by the massive commercial scaling of the Starlink constellation, which accounts for the lion's share of its total count. The total number of global satellites has nearly tripled in just five years, creating an 'orbital congestion' that makes traffic management in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) unprecedentedly complex. To put the scale into perspective: the U.S. inventory of active satellites exceeds the combined total of all other countries from 2nd to 12th place. This absolute scale advantage has fundamentally reshaped modern telecommunications, geospatial mapping, and global strategic surveillance.