Mondo Knows Facts
Molniya orbits loiter over high latitudes
A 12 hour ellipse with a distant apogee serves northern Russia for hours at a time The Molniya orbit climbs to an apogee near 40,000 kilometres over the northern hemisphere and dips to a few hundred kilometres in the south. Satellites crawl near apogee, so they stay in view of high latitudes for most of each 12 hour loop. An inclination near 63 degrees keeps the ellipse from twisting out of shape. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Molniya orbits linger over high latitudesA satellite on a long ellipse spends most of each twelve hour orbit crawling across the northern skySatellites in low orbit slowly sinkThin air still reaches the space station and drags it down each dayGeostationary orbit sits 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one lap takes exactly a day, so the satellite hangs stillGeostationary satellites sit 35,786 kilometres upAt that height one orbit takes a day, so the craft appears to hang stillSun-synchronous orbits keep the same local timeThese near-polar paths precess to match the Sun's apparent yearly motionEarth orbit holds millions of artificial space debris fragmentsDefunct satellites and paint flecks orbit Earth at high orbital velocities
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Tags: orbits, communications, satellites
Molniya orbits loiter over high latitudes: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A 12 hour ellipse with a distant apogee serves northern Russia for hours at a time. 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.