Q 2.16 How can we categories different types of satellites?

Satellites may be categorized according to their orbit, weight, function, or payload.

By orbit
Low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), Highly Elliptical orbit (HEO), geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). (See answer to question 3.1 for definition of orbit type)By weight

Large Medium
Mini
Micro
Nano
Pico
Femto

>1000 kg 500-100 kg
100-500 kg
10-100 kg
1-10 kg
0.1-1 kg
<0.1 kg

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/satellite_mass_categories.html (Retrieved July, 2015)

By function

Communication, Broadcast, Navigation, Remote Sensing (Earth Observation, Weather, Meteorology, etc.), Military, Scientific, Research and Development, Inter-planetary, etc.By payload

Communication
Global beam, Spot-beam, Transparent, Processing, High throughput, L-band, X-band, Ku-band or Ka-band satellite, Mobile services, Fixed services

Direct broadcast satellites
Television, Radio, Multi-media, Distribution

Remote sensing satellites may be categorized based on the remote-sensing probe (sensor- optical, microwave, infrared, multi-spectral, etc.); by spatial resolution; by application (e.g. Earth resource).

Military satellites
communication, surveillance, early warning, nuclear detector, etc.

Navigation
Global, Regional, Satellite Based Augmentation