October 2017
Saving geostationary orbit
... from which to relay telephone communications). The first truly geostationary (geosynchronous equatorial orbit) satellite, Syncom 3, was not launched until 1964, but this prime orbital real-estate was soon exploited for civil applications including...
October 2019
Electric orbit raising and space weather
...). The colour coding indicates the number of days after launch. Geostationary orbit (GEO) is indicated by a white dashed line. Electric orbit raising Satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) are fixed at an altitude of around 36,000 km, but even they...
April 2017
Urgent action needed to keep satellites safe in orbit
...non-functional and uncontrolled objects - has been left in Earth orbit which poses a serious challenge to the sustainability of outer space ... which ‘trap’ non-station-kept objects in the geostationary ring. The trapped objects are mostly old payloads ...
February 2021
On the nature of spacepower
... (including the Earth and its atmosphere), Earth Space (from the lowest possible orbit to geostationary orbit), Lunar Space (geostationary orbit to the Moon’s orbit) and Solar Space (everything in the solar system beyond the Moon). Of these, Dolman...
29 September 2021
Orbit Fab to launch first geostationary fuel tanker
... Fab has announced it will be launching the first propellant tanker to geostationary orbit via a SpaceX rocket in late 2022 or early 2023. Known as “Tanker-002,” the spacecraft will be used to refuel ...
July 2019
Aggression in outer space – time for action
.... In the same category are the manoeuvres made by Chinese satellites in both low Earth orbit (LEO) and, more recently, in geostationary orbit (GEO), which point to testing of rendezvous operations or inspection objectives. In the United States, the...