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This can vary depending on the function of the satellite. In general, the satellite is launched by unmanned rockets or from the space shuttle payload bay at the correct altitude. After the satellite is released from the launch vehicle, the speed of a satellite is adjusted so that the rate at which it is being pulled back toward the earth is the same as the rate at which the earth is turning underneath it. So it is continually falling but not hitting the earth. This is what is also happening to the space shuttle when in earth orbit and the ISS.

Satellites in geostationary orbit - where they appear to remain over a single point on the earth - must have a circular orbit for this to occur. That is why they are placed over the equator. Any other orbit is elliptical in shape.

The problem that arises is that the earth is not perfectly round, even at the equator, and so the orbit of geostationary satellites must be adjusted every two weeks to compensate for this. The engines are remotely fired for the correct amount of time. When the fuel runs out, this can no longer be done.

Orbital mechanics is a complex and detailed concept to understand. See some of the Web Links to the left.

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16y ago
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15y ago

Tie a washer onto a piece of string and swing it in a circle over your head. Now in the case of the satellite, Earth is like your hand, gravity is like the string, and the satellite is the washer. The satellite is given a push at a specific speed at a certain distance from the earth in a direction perpendicular to the direction gravity wants to pull it, and the gravity causes the satellite to swing around the earth since it always pulls towards the center of the earth.

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15y ago

The satellites that "stay positioned" in the sky are called geostationary. The way it works is this. First, the satellite must be in orbit around the equator. Also, to stay in orbit around the earth, an object has to have some amount of motion. It's called orbital velocity. The farther out it is, the less orbital velocity it has to have because there is less gravitational effect in those higher orbits. At some point out there, the satellite will be moving at the same speed the earth is turning, and will appear from earth to be stationary. A satellite (sometimes called a "bird") won't be moving as we see it from here. We've parked a bird in geostationary orbit. Note: There is a slight "figure 8" motion to birds out there in those orbits. A link can be found below.

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12y ago

I am not completely sure but i think it is something to do with the speed of the satalite and how high up it is. That why they fire them up in shuttles and try to get the at the right speed for their orbits

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13y ago

There are two factors associated with the ability of a satellite to remain in its orbit about the earth. The first is that the satellite was accelerated a great deal by the launch vehicle. It was really moving when it was released into its desired orbit. The second factor is the gravitational attraction of the earth. Let's break it down a bit more.

If the gravity of the earth was not acting on the satellite, its speed would cause it to "fly off" on a tangent to its previous orbital path. You can picture this if you visualize a ball on a string being swing rapidly about an experimenter. If the string breaks or the person swinging the thing lets it go, the ball takes off in a straight line from the circle it has been moving in. The string in this experiment could be likened to the earth's gravity acting on a satellite and "holding it" on its orbital path.

Should we break it down one more time, the satellite moves just a tiny bit in the direction it is going, but is pulled a bit closer to earth by gravity. The satellite then moves a bit more in the "new" direction (a tangent to the orbital path), and the earth again pulls it in a bit. The result is that the sum of the two vectors (the satellite's inertia and the pull of gravity) results in an orbit about the earth. Each instant represents a tiny movement of the satellite on a tangent plus a tiny tug of gravity on the satellite to keep it on a curved path.

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14y ago

Any orbit is a balance between the speed of the object and gravity. Gravity pulls the satellite DOWN, but the object is going so fast that by the time it falls back to Earth, it has already gone so far "downrange" that the satellite has missed the Earth. And it keeps on missing!

That's why scientists call it "free-fall" rather than "weightlessness"; the satellite still has its normal weight, but is falling AROUND the planet.

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10y ago

It stays in the Earth's orbit because of Earth's gravity. The same way the moon is being pulled by Earth's gravity.

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14y ago

It attains a speed that keeps it from both falling back to earth and also keeps it from flying out of orbit and going into space.

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14y ago

The satellites are orbit around the earth due to gravitational force in the earth

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12y ago

Satellite are placed in orbit with rockets, usually at commercial launch sites.

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Q: How is a satellite placed in orbit and why it retains its position in space?
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A satellite is any object in orbit. An artificial satellite is specifically placed in orbit by human endeavor.


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a satellite is built on earth and then placed into orbit. which statement correctly completes the following sentence


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Satellites are placed into orbit by rockets. They are designed to fit into the bus that they are placed on. Depending on the location they be launched form locations near the equator or Molniya orbits.


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