Historical GEO Satellite Placement Rate

Today there are 580 satellites in geosynchronous orbit [1]. That didn't happen overnight.

The early filling of the geosynchronous orbits took about 25 years. This chart from 1980 [2], using a logarithmic scale, shows how quickly the limited number of locations in that orbit were initially occupied.

The initial pace of deployment was limited by launch costs, launch capability, and markets for the services those satellites provided. Compared with the deployment of hashtag#Starlink that started in 2019, this growth was glacial.

hashtag#Starlink can grow quickly because it delivers services to a vast global market which has the infrastructure and demand to drive growth. Compared to 1980, the global market today is vastly bigger, the supply chains can integrate more products than ever into markets, and infrastructure can distribute anything quickly. This accelerates the return on capital from new hashtag#space capabilities.

This accelerating pace of deployment is another data point supporting the immense potential of space based solar power ( hashtag#SBSP ).

References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satellites_in_geosynchronous_orbit
[2] https://nss.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1981-NRC-Electric-Power-From-Orbit-2-Appendices.pdf