Tool · Orbital mechanics
Satellite Orbits
Six real satellites, one per orbit regime. Altitude and period are calculated from each satellite's current two-line element set using Kepler's third law, so the numbers move as the orbits decay or get boosted.
Altitude ladder
Log scale, 300 km to 40,000 km above the surface.
Tiangong (CSS Tianhe)
Chinese space station
LEO
· 387 km
period 92.3 min
· inclination 41.47°
ISS (Zarya)
Crewed laboratory, low Earth orbit
LEO
· 420 km
period 93 min
· inclination 51.63°
Hubble Space Telescope
Space telescope, low Earth orbit
LEO
· 470 km
period 94 min
· inclination 28.47°
NOAA 19
Polar-orbiting weather satellite
LEO
· 847 km
period 101.9 min
· inclination 98.94°
GPS BIIR-2 (NAVSTAR 43)
Navigation satellite, medium Earth orbit
MEO
· 20,182 km
period 12 h
· inclination 56.06°
Himawari-9
JAXA/JMA geostationary weather satellite
GEO
· 35,786 km
period 23.9 h
· inclination 0.01°
LEO
Under 2,000 km. Fast (about 90 minutes a lap), good resolution, and crewed stations live here. The ISS circles Earth roughly 16 times a day.
MEO
GPS sits near 20,200 km with a 12-hour period, so a modest constellation keeps satellites in view everywhere.
GEO
35,786 km, a 24-hour period, near-zero inclination. The satellite appears fixed in the sky, which is why Himawari can watch one hemisphere continuously.
Orbits and why they work: SSA-01 Module 2. Which orbit suits which job: SSA-02 Module 4. TLE data from a public mirror of Space-Track / CelesTrak element sets.