Information about High Earth Orbit

Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) is an elliptic orbit characterized by a relatively low-altitude perigee and an extremely high-altitude apogee. These extremely elongated orbits can have the advantage of long dwell times at a point in the sky during the approach to and descent from apogee. Visibility near apogee can exceed twelve hours of dwell at apogee with a much shorter and faster-moving perigee phase. Bodies moving through the long apogee dwell can appear still in the sky to the ground when the orbit is at the right inclination, where the angular velocity of the orbit in the equatorial plane closely matches the rotation of the surface beneath. This makes these elliptical orbits useful for communications satellites.

The image shows how Sirius Satellite Radio uses HEO orbits to keep two satellites positioned above North America while another satellite quickly sweeps through the southern part of its 24-hour orbit. The longitude above which the satellites dwell at apogee in the small loop remains relatively constant as the Earth rotates. The three separate orbits are spaced equally around the Earth, but share a common groundtrack.



Examples of HEO orbits offering visibility over Earth's polar regions, which most geosynchronous satellites lack:

• Molniya orbit, after the Soviet communications satellites which used such an orbit.
• Tundra orbit, also developed for Soviet use, but only used by US Sirius Satellite Radio.

Much of Russia is at high latitude, so geostationary orbit does not provide full coverage of the region. These Soviet HEO orbits include polar coverage.

See also

• List of orbits

References

P.W. Fortescue, L.J. Mottershead, G. Swinerd, and J.P.W. Stark. Spacecraft Systems Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, 2003. Section 5.7: highly elliptic orbits.

•  • [ e] Orbits
Orbit types	Box orbit • Circular orbit • Ecliptic orbit • Elliptic orbit • Highly Elliptical Orbit • Graveyard orbit • Hyperbolic trajectory • Inclined orbit • Osculating orbit • Parabolic trajectory • Capture orbit • Escape orbit • Semi-synchronous orbit • Subsynchronous orbit • Synchronous orbit • Parking orbit
Earth-centered orbits	Geosynchronous orbit • Geostationary orbit • Sun-synchronous orbit • Low Earth orbit • Medium Earth Orbit • Molniya orbit • Near equatorial orbit • Orbit of the Moon • Polar orbit • Tundra orbit
Other orbits	Areosynchronous orbit • Areostationary orbit • Halo orbit • Lissajous orbit • Lunar orbit • Heliocentric orbit • Heliosynchronous orbit
Orbital elements	Inclination () • Longitude of the ascending node () • Eccentricity () • Argument of periapsis () • Semi-major axis () • Mean anomaly at epoch ()
Other orbital parameters	True anomaly () • Semi-minor axis () • Linear eccentricity () • Eccentric anomaly () • Mean longitude () • True longitude () • Orbital period ()
Orbital maneuvers	Bi-elliptic transfer • Geostationary transfer orbit • Gravitational slingshot • Hohmann transfer orbit • Orbital inclination change • Orbit phasing • Space rendezvous
Other orbital mechanics topics	Apsis • Celestial coordinate system • Delta-v budget • Epoch • Ephemeris • Equatorial coordinate system • Gravity turn • Ground track • Interplanetary Transport Network • Kepler's laws of planetary motion • Lagrangian point • List of orbits • n-body problem • Orbit equation • Orbital state vectors • Perturbation • Retrograde and direct motion • Specific orbital energy • Specific relative angular momentum • The Oberth effect