Gps Satellite Orbit Altitude

The global positioning system gps originally navstar gps is a satellite based radionavigation system owned by the united states government and operated by the united states space force.

Gps satellite orbit altitude.

It is one of the global navigation satellite systems gnss that provides geolocation and time information to a gps receiver anywhere on or near the earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to. There is a large variety of other sources that define leo in terms of. Most of the manmade objects in outer space are in leo. An orbit whose period is a rational multiple of the average rotational period of the body being orbited and in the same direction of rotation as that body.

Same for glonass and galileo. Well it depends on the accuracy or precision you want to know. Each satellite circles the earth twice a day. A low earth orbit leo is an earth centred orbit with an altitude of 2 000 km 1 200 mi or less approximately one third of the radius of earth or with at least 11 25 periods per day an orbital period of 128 minutes or less and an eccentricity less than 0 25.

To ensure this commitment the air force has been flying 31 operational gps satellites for the past few years. The gps 3 sv04 satellite separates from the falcon 9 rocket in an elliptical transfer orbit with an apogee or high point near the altitude of the gps fleet located around 12 550 miles 22 200. They all fly 12 550 miles 20 200 km above the earths surface in medium earth orbit meo which causes them to orbit the earth precisely twice per day. In september 2016 the air force awarded lockheed martin a contract option for two more block iiia satellites setting the total number of gps iiia satellites to ten.

On 23 december 2018 the first gps iii satellite was launched aboard a spacex falcon 9 full. Constellation arrangement gps satellites fly in medium earth orbit meo at an altitude of approximately 20 200 km 12 550 miles.