Various earth orbits to scale; Yellow represents medium earth orbit
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), sometimes called Intermediate Circular Orbit (ICO), is the region of space around the Earth above low Earth orbit (2,000 kilometres (1,243 mi)) and below geostationary orbit (35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi)).[1]
The most common use for satellites in this region is for navigation, such as the GPS (20,200 kilometres (12,552 mi)), Glonass (19,100 kilometres (11,868 mi)) and Galileo (23,222 kilometres (14,429 mi)) constellations. Communications satellites that cover the North and South Pole are also put in MEO.[2]
The orbital periods of MEO satellites range from about 2 to 24 hours.[3] Telstar, one of the first and most famous experimental satellites, orbits in MEO.[4]
See also
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