# Telecom Satellites **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792 "2004-05-30T15:20:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/1 "2004-05-30T15:20:14Z")
Does anyone know their usual distance from Earth’s surface? Thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/2 "2004-05-30T15:50:44Z")
They are in geo stationary orbit, That’s at about 22,000 miles. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/3 "2004-05-30T16:20:26Z")
Not all satellites are in geosynchronous orbit. Satellites that a consumer mounted dish is to be aimed at are (satellite TV, etc). Low Earth Orbit (LEO - about 100 to 500 miles - it varies somewhat from different sources) is employed for a lot of telecommunications services such as mobile phone - you can have stations which track the satellites, it doesn’t take as much power to get a signal up to the LEO satellite, and you have less lag time to cope with. Here’s a table of orbital distances and their uses: [http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/satellite/orbits.html](http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/satellite/orbits.html) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/4 "2004-05-30T16:43:54Z")
In fact, if you want to dig through a mountain of data on the satellite “constellations” for various services, here’s a registry somebody maintains: [http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/](http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/) There’s an interesting picture on the “overview” page, illustrating the orbital heights of some of the services: [http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/overview.html](http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/overview.html) ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/5 "2004-05-31T01:25:25Z")
The [CelesTrak](http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/master.shtml) site has information on the orbits of specific satellites. ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/6 "2004-05-31T17:44:51Z")
The [J-Track](http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html) site plots the positions of lots of satellites, with orbits and ground tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telecom-satellites/247792/7 "2004-05-31T20:49:55Z")
**yabob** ’s first link is inaccurate in at least one detail: geostationary and geosynchronous are _not_ the same thing. The former is a sub-class of the latter. Geosynchronous orbits are ones in which an object remains over a single longtitude of the earth, but it might vary in latitude. A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly over the equator, so that the latitude never changes.