Where does this come from, and can I check it?

A satellite on a long ellipse spends most of each twelve hour orbit crawling across the northern sky. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Technology 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.

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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.

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Molniya orbits linger over high latitudes

A satellite on a long ellipse spends most of each twelve hour orbit crawling across the northern sky The orbit has a perigee of a few hundred kilometres and an apogee near 40,000, and it is inclined about 63 degrees to avoid the drift caused by Earth's equatorial bulge. Slow motion near apogee keeps the spacecraft in view of Russia's far north for hours, where geostationary satellites sit too low on the horizon. Three satellites in staggered orbits give continuous coverage. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA

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More facts like this

Molniya orbits loiter over high latitudesA 12 hour ellipse with a distant apogee serves northern Russia for hours at a time Geostationary satellites sit 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one orbit takes a day, so the craft appears to hang still Sun-synchronous orbits keep the same local timeThese near-polar paths precess to match the Sun's apparent yearly motion Satellites in low orbit slowly sinkThin air still reaches the space station and drags it down each day Geostationary orbit sits 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one lap takes exactly a day, so the satellite hangs still Satellites run on batteries twice a dayIn geostationary orbit the spacecraft spends about 72 minutes of each day in Earth's shadow and draws on stored power

Tags: orbits, satellites, communications

Molniya orbits linger over high latitudes: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A satellite on a long ellipse spends most of each twelve hour orbit crawling across the northern sky. The figure is taken from NASA, 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 technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology 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.