A project whose location is set to orbit is on the Atlas, but it is not part of any body's number. The counts you see under Earth, Mars and the Moon are built from those three sets only. Orbit is loaded as a fourth set and is left out of all of them, so the bubbles will never add up to the total number of located projects.
Your project has not been dropped. It is drawn as one of the small points moving around the planets on the solar system view, and selecting it opens its card in the usual way.
What orbit does and does not get
- It appears as a moving point on the solar system view, and its card opens when you select it.
- It is not counted in the Earth, Mars or Moon bubble.
- It is not on any globe. Opening Earth, Mars or the Moon draws only the pins belonging to that body, so an orbit project is not among them.
- The Atlas search box cannot find it. That box searches the pins loaded for the body you have open, and orbit is not a body you can open.
Because there are very few orbit projects at any time, a member with one can reasonably conclude their work vanished. It did not, but it is genuinely much harder to come across than a pin on Earth.
If you want your project counted and searchable
Set the location to a body rather than to orbit. Open the project in the builder, select Location in the left sidebar, choose Earth, Mars or the Moon, and place the pin. Publish afterwards, because the Atlas reads published versions only.
A location on Mars or the Moon is counted and searchable in the same way as one on Earth. Orbit is the only choice that sits outside the numbers.