The standard classes of orbit around Earth that satellites are placed in, grouped by altitude and period: low Earth orbit close to the surface, geosynchronous and geostationary orbits at about 36,000 kilometres and the Sun-synchronous orbit used by Earth observation satellites. A concept belongs here when its cited article defines a named kind of Earth orbit. Members are placed here from their own cited Wikipedia articles, each with a verbatim supporting quotation, so a reader can check why an entry sits in this group. The grouping forms part of the browse path for this section of the atlas.
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Earth Orbit Types
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Low Earth orbit (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Low Earth Orbit, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Member: Low Earth Orbit, Lead sentence
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25.
Geosynchronous orbit (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Geosynchronous Orbit, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Member: Geosynchronous Orbit, Lead sentence
A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day).
Sun-synchronous orbit (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Sun-Synchronous Orbit, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Member: Sun-Synchronous Orbit, Lead sentence
A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time.
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