Mondo Knows Facts
Geostationary satellites sit 35,786 kilometres up
At that height one orbit takes a day, so the craft appears to hang still A geostationary orbit is circular, equatorial and about 35,786 kilometres above the surface. At that altitude the orbital period matches Earth's rotation, so the satellite stays above one spot on the ground. Weather and communications satellites use it because a dish below never has to track them across the sky. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
Geostationary orbit sits 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one lap takes exactly a day, so the satellite hangs stillSun-synchronous orbits keep the same local timeThese near-polar paths precess to match the Sun's apparent yearly motionMolniya orbits loiter over high latitudesA 12 hour ellipse with a distant apogee serves northern Russia for hours at a timeSatellites in low orbit slowly sinkThin air still reaches the space station and drags it down each dayMolniya orbits linger over high latitudesA satellite on a long ellipse spends most of each twelve hour orbit crawling across the northern skyEarth orbit holds millions of artificial space debris fragmentsDefunct satellites and paint flecks orbit Earth at high orbital velocities
🪐 Spacefact 119 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: orbits, geostationary, satellites
Geostationary satellites sit 35,786 kilometres up: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- At that height one orbit takes a day, so the craft appears to hang still. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a space fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.