what height do satellites orbit at?
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Low Earth orbit (LEO): geocentric orbits with altitudes below 2,000 km (100–1,240 miles). Medium Earth orbit (MEO): geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 2,000 km (1,240 miles) to just below geosynchronous orbit at 35,786 kilometers (22,236 mi). Also known as an intermediate circular orbit.
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Orbits of artificial satellites can be elliptical or circular. A satellite that stays in orbit with just the right speed will retrace its path, just like the Moon continues to orbit the Earth. Artificial satellites also need just the right speed to stay in orbit around the Earth.
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To stay in orbit, an object must be traveling at a constant speed over Earth's surface. For the ISS, which orbits at a height of about 200 miles (322 kilometers), that's roughly 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) an hour. ... Without those propellant burns, the station would eventually drop from orbit.
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… orbits: low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geostationary or geosynchronous orbit (GEO). LEO satellites are positioned at an altitude between 160 km and 1,600 km (100 and 1,000 miles) above Earth. MEO satellites operate from 10,000 to 20,000 km (6,300 to 12,500 miles) from Earth.
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Since many satellites orbit within the thermosphere, changes in the density of (the very, very thin) air at orbital altitudes brought on by heating and expansion of the thermosphere generates a drag force on satellites. ... These waves and tides help move energy around within the atmosphere, including the thermosphere.
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Equatorial satellites are launched into orbit in the same direction the Earth is spinning. When the satellite is in orbit at a specific altitude, it will exactly match the rotation of the Earth. ... Polar satellites are in a circular orbit that passes over both the geographic North Pole and over the South Pole.
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In reality, the satellite may orbit Earth once every hour-and-a-half or so, going around many times per day. An example of satellites in polar orbit are the three POES* satellites. Putting the images from the three satellites together, it takes only six hours to get pictures of just about every square inch of Earth.
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A: Satellites and other spacecraft can orbit with the rotation of the Earth, in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation, or in any other direction! Usually satellites orbit in the direction of Earth's rotation, but there are some satellites that travel in the opposite direction.
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Why are the GPS constellation satellites in such a high orbit? Most satellites are in Low Earth Orbit. Some other satellites are in Geostationary Orbit because their function requires it. ... Clearly the GPS design does not require that they need to be in GEO.
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A satellite orbits Earth when its speed is balanced by the pull of Earth's gravity. Without this balance, the satellite would fly in a straight line off into space or fall back to Earth. Satellites orbit Earth at different heights, different speeds and along different paths.
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The global positioning systems depend on a constellation of 24 satellites that orbit 20,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface. When you use a GPS device, such as your smartphone, to pinpoint your location, a signal is sent to one of those satellites.
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An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. An object in an orbit is called a satellite. A satellite can be natural, like Earth or the moon. Many planets have moons that orbit them.
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To maintain an orbit that is 22,223 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth, the satellite must orbit at a speed of about 7,000 mph (11,300 kph). That orbital speed and distance permit the satellite to make one revolution in 24 hours.
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There's also fuel problem too. The shortest distance between Earth and space is about 62 miles (100 kilometers) straight up, which by general accord is where the planet's boundary ends and suborbital space begins.
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The orbit will tend to shift over time but it will stay orbiting the Earth in the same way that the Moon still orbits the Earth after millions of years. But usually we don't want them to stay in a particular orbit forever. A satellite has a useful lifetime of between 5 and 15 years depending on the satellite.
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Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. It extends upward to a height of about 85 km (53 miles) above our planet. Most meteors burn up in the mesosphere. Unlike the stratosphere, temperatures once again grow colder as you rise up through the mesosphere.
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In order to cover large distances, ballistic missiles are usually launched into a high sub-orbital spaceflight; for intercontinental missiles, the highest altitude (apogee) reached during free-flight is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi).