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The Tundra orbit is an eccentric geosynchronous orbit, which allows the satellite to spend most of its time dwelling over one high latitude location. It sits at an inclination of 63.4°, which is a frozen orbit, which reduces the need for stationkeeping. [23] At least two satellites are needed to provide continuous coverage over an area. [24]
Repeat orbit: An orbit where the ground track of the satellite repeats after a period of time. Gangale orbit: a solar orbit near Mars whose period is one Martian year, but whose eccentricity and inclination both differ from that of Mars such that a relay satellite in a Gangale orbit is visible from Earth even during solar conjunction. [28]
The European Space Agency telecom satellite Olympus-1 was struck by a meteoroid on August 11, 1993, and eventually moved to a graveyard orbit, [60] and in 2006 the Russian Express-AM11 communications satellite was struck by an unknown object and rendered inoperable, [61] although its engineers had enough contact time with the satellite to send ...
A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an apogee farther than that of the geosynchronous orbit, which is 35,786 km (22,236 mi) away from Earth. [1] In this article, the non-standard abbreviation of HEO is used for high Earth orbit.
In 2002, the satellite's main spacecraft control processor failed, prompting DirecTV to move the spacecraft into a storage orbit. [27] The satellite was recalled in October 2003 and leased to Telesat, relocating to 82° W in order to provide backup for Nimiq 2. [28] In 2004, the satellite was relocated to 91° W, backing up Nimiq 1.
Satellites in geostationary orbit. A geosynchronous satellite is a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, with an orbital period the same as the Earth's rotation period.Such a satellite returns to the same position in the sky after each sidereal day, and over the course of a day traces out a path in the sky that is typically some form of analemma.
Beta angle ()In orbital mechanics, the beta angle is the angle between a satellite's orbital plane around Earth and the geocentric position of the Sun. [1] The beta angle determines the percentage of time that a satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) spends in direct sunlight, absorbing solar radiation. [2]
The half-orbit on the Sun side then takes only 50 minutes, during which local time of day does not vary greatly. To retain a Sun-synchronous orbit as the Earth revolves around the Sun during the year, the orbit must precess about the Earth at the same rate (which is not possible if the satellite passes directly over the pole).