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A satellite is said to occupy an inclined orbit around the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
 if the orbit exhibits an angle other than zero degrees with the equatorial plane. This angle is called the orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
's inclination
Inclination

Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or Axis_of_rotation of direction. The axial tilt is expressed as the angle made by the planet's axis and a line drawn through the planet's center perpendicular to the orbital plane....
.

class="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1417848",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1417848")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Geostationary_orbit">geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit

A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero....
 occurs when an object (satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
) is placed approximately 37,000 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth's equator
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
 with the characteristic that, from a fixed observation point on the Earth's surface, it appears motionless.






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A satellite is said to occupy an inclined orbit around the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
 if the orbit exhibits an angle other than zero degrees with the equatorial plane. This angle is called the orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
's inclination
Inclination

Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or Axis_of_rotation of direction. The axial tilt is expressed as the angle made by the planet's axis and a line drawn through the planet's center perpendicular to the orbital plane....
.

Special case: geosynchronous inclined orbit

A geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit

A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero....
 occurs when an object (satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
) is placed approximately 37,000 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth's equator
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
 with the characteristic that, from a fixed observation point on the Earth's surface, it appears motionless. A satellite is in an inclined orbit when its orbital plane is tipped some number of degrees from the horizontal defined by the equator. In the case of an inclined geosynchronous orbit, although the satellite remains geosynchronous (that is, completing one orbit around the earth every 24 hours), it is no longer geostationary. From a fixed observation point on Earth, it would appear to trace out a figure-eight with lobes oriented north-southward once every twenty-four hours.

A geostationary orbit is not stable. It takes regular manoeuvers to actively control it. The majority of the fuel spent for this purpose is to counteract the gravitational forces of Sun and Moon which mainly increase the inclination over time. At the end of the satellite's lifetime, when fuel approaches depletion, satellite operators may decide on omitting inclination manoeuvres and only control eccentricity. This could prolong the life-time of the satellite as it needs less fuel. On the other hand the satellite can only be used by ground antennae capable of following abovementioned north-south movement. Before the fuel comes to an end, satellites shall be moved to a graveyard orbit
Graveyard orbit

A graveyard orbit, also called a supersynchronous orbit, junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit significantly above synchronous orbit where spacecraft are intentionally placed at the end of their operational life....
 to keep the geostationary altitude free for subsequent missions.

NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 maintains a Java
Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java ....
 based real-time display of most commercial satellites which can be helpful in visualizing the various orbits.

See also

  • List of orbits
    List of orbits

    The following is a list of types of Orbit s:...


External links