Orbital mechanics can be a bit counter-intuitive. We have to slow down an orbiting space craft to convert kinetic energy for gravitational energy. The orbital altitude is raised at its highest point ...

For LLO, using the Moon’s radius of 1,700km, a minimum orbital altitude of 30km, and a maximum altitude of 1,000km I come up with a LLO volume of just 61B km³ or about 4.7% of LEO.

Even then, it had to do a total of six gravity assists past Mercury to match the planet’s orbital speed around the sun. The last assist was in January 2025, and it will enter Mercury orbit in ...

Earth’s average orbital distance from the sun is about 150 million km, so this is quite an excursion. Cruithne’s orbit is tilted quite a bit, too, by nearly 20 degrees.

Terran Orbit has demonstrated a record-breaking 200-gigabit orbital data link that finally allows high-bandwidth data transfer from space to Earth. It'll replace antique, low-bandwidth X-band ...

The orbital speed of China's permanently crewed space station is around 17,200 mph (27,600 km/h).

"How fast the eclipse travels depends on the geometry — where on Earth the shadow is traveling, as well as the distance to the moon and the moon's orbital speed," Dan McGlaun, an eclipse ...