Concepts

Orbital Inclination

Citation Formats

General Reference

Space and Astronomy Atlas. "Orbital Inclination." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/orbital-inclination.

APA Style

Space and Astronomy Atlas. (n.d.). Orbital Inclination. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/orbital-inclination

BibTeX

@misc{spaceandastronomyatlas-orbital-inclination,
  author = {Space and Astronomy Atlas},
  title = {Orbital Inclination},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/orbital-inclination},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body, expressed as the angle between the orbital plane and a reference plane, such as a planet's equator or, for objects orbiting the Sun, the ecliptic. It is one of the six classical orbital elements used to fully describe the size, shape and orientation of an orbit, and it determines, among other things, which latitudes a satellite passes over.

Facts

Concept Domain

Orbital Mechanics 1

Cross-Tradition Connections