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A geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit, or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997, NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite payloads orbiting Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris as tracked by the Goddard Space Flight Center . [ 1 ]
In the Solar System, all planets, comets, and asteroids are in such orbits, as are many artificial satellites and pieces of space debris. Moons by contrast are not in a heliocentric orbit but rather orbit their parent object. Geocentric orbit: An orbit around the planet Earth, such as that of the Moon or of artificial satellites.
Sirius Satellite Radio used inclined HEO orbits, specifically the Tundra orbits, to keep two satellites positioned above North America while another satellite quickly sweeps through the southern part of its 24-hour orbit. The longitude above which the satellites dwell at apogee in the small loop remains relatively constant as Earth rotates.
In order to leave the Solar System, the probe needs to reach the local escape velocity. Escape velocity from the sun without the influence of Earth is 42.1 km/s. In order to reach this speed, it is highly advantageous to use as a boost the orbital speed of the Earth around the Sun, which is 29.78 km/s.
Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, peaking in number at an altitude around 800 km (500 mi), [2] while the farthest in LEO, before medium Earth orbit (MEO), have an altitude of 2,000 kilometers, about one-third of the radius of Earth and near the beginning of the inner Van Allen radiation belt.
An animation showing a low eccentricity orbit (near-circle, in red), and a high eccentricity orbit (ellipse, in purple). In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object [1] such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such ...
It communicates through the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth. Real-time distance and velocity data are provided by NASA and JPL. [4] At a distance of 167.34 AU (25.0 billion km; 15.6 billion mi) from Earth as of February 2025, [4] it is the most distant human-made object from Earth. [5]
Queqiao is the first ever communication relay and radio astronomy satellite at operating its location. [39] Spektr-RG: Sun–Earth L 2: IKI RAN DLR: Launched 13 July 2019. Roentgen and Gamma space observatory. Operational as of June 2020. [40] Chang'e 5 Service Module: Sun–Earth L 1: CNSA: Launched on 23 November 2020, arrived at L 1 halo ...