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  2. Low Earth orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit

    A wide variety of sources [5] [6] [7] define LEO in terms of altitude.The altitude of an object in an elliptic orbit can vary significantly along the orbit. Even for circular orbits, the altitude above ground can vary by as much as 30 km (19 mi) (especially for polar orbits) due to the oblateness of Earth's spheroid figure and local topography.

  3. Communications satellite - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_satellite

    The region below medium orbits is referred to as low Earth orbit (LEO), and is about 160 to 2,000 kilometres (99 to 1,243 mi) above Earth. As satellites in MEO and LEO orbit the Earth faster, they do not remain visible in the sky to a fixed point on Earth continually like a geostationary satellite, but appear to a ground observer to cross the ...

  4. List of orbits - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_orbits

    Average altitude of 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi), elliptical-inclined orbit. Beyond-low Earth orbit (BLEO) and beyond Earth orbit (BEO) are a broad class of orbits that are energetically farther out than low Earth orbit or require an insertion into a heliocentric orbit as part of a journey that may require multiple orbital insertions ...

  5. Satellite Internet access - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access

    How satellite internet works. Satellite Internet generally relies on three primary components: a satellite – historically in geostationary orbit (or GEO) but now increasingly in Low Earth orbit (LEO) or Medium Earth orbit MEO) [23] – a number of ground stations known as gateways that relay Internet data to and from the satellite via radio waves (), and further ground stations to serve each ...

  6. Very low Earth orbit - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_Earth_orbit

    Very low Earth orbit is a range of orbital altitudes below 400 km (250 mi), and is of increasing commercial importance in a variety of scenarios and for multiple applications, in both private and government satellite operations.

  7. Iridium satellite constellation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite...

    Satellites are placed in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 781 kilometres (485 mi) and inclination of 86.4°. The nearly polar orbit and communication between satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links provide global service availability (including both poles, oceans and airways), regardless of the position of ground stations and ...

  8. Space segment - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_segment

    The medium Earth orbit (MEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) configurations can also be used for various applications. A communications satellite is composed of a communications payload ( repeater and antenna ) and supporting spacecraft bus (including solar arrays and batteries , attitude and orbit control systems, structure and thermal control ...

  9. Satellite - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite

    The first artificial satellite launched into the Earth's orbit was the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. As of December 31, 2022, there are 6,718 operational satellites in the Earth's orbit, of which 4,529 belong to the United States (3,996 commercial), 590 belong to China, 174 belong to Russia, and 1,425 belong to other nations. [1]