From GPS to the venerable Hubble Space Telescope, low Earth orbit has proved to be a very useful piece of space real estate indeed.
but not the only one. Apart from GEO, there are also Medium Earth Orbit , High Earth Orbit , Sun-synchronous orbit , geostationary transfer orbit , and Lagrange points .there were roughly 4,550 satellites orbiting the Earth orbiting in LEO, MEO, HEO, and GEO. These satellites are operated by a variety of private and public organizations, including the likes of SpaceX, the U.S. Air Force, ESA, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, etc.
The orbital speeds of satellites in GSO and GEO match the rate of rotation of the Earth; GEO objects orbit the equator, giving them the impression of being in a fixed location. Consider that most commercial aircraft do not fly at altitudes much higher than between 31,000 feet and 38,000 feet .LEO satellites do not always have to follow a specific course around Earth in the same way, since their plane can be inclined, unlike satellites in GEO that must always circle near the equator. As a result, there are more options for satellite paths in LEO, which is one of the reasons it is such a popular orbit.
Because they move so quickly across the sky and can be difficult for ground stations to detect, individual LEO satellites are usually less valuable for operations like telephony. It was the first of three planned satellites that were intended as part of the former Soviet Union's Sputnik program as part of the International Geophysical Year . As 'Sputnik' was the Russian term for "satellite", the word Sputnik also appeared in the names of spacecraft in other Soviet space programs and was used in the west for any Soviet satellite whose original Soviet name was not known at the time.
Hubble gets clear images because it’s above Earth’s atmosphere, not because it travels or flies closer to cosmic objects. There are 66 operational satellites in the constellation, which are necessary for providing global coverage, as well as additional backup satellites. .
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