Re:DirecTV races to decommission broken satellite before it ...
by mongol on Friday January 24, 2020 @12:27PM
(#22140403)
Why is it higher, rather than lower? If it is higher, will it not eventually be back in geostationary orbit?
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Re:DirecTV races to decommission broken satellite before it ...
by zentiggr on Friday January 24, 2020 @12:43PM
(#22140569)
At these orbital heights, there is no atmosphere for drag effects, so adding energy to move to a slightly higher orbit, outside of true geosync altitude, is a permanent change.
Low Earth orbits do have atmospheric drag issues, and those items need to have fuel to replace lost velocity and restore the correct orbit.
The ISS page has a neat table of orbital height over time where you can see the burns to 'jack it back up'.