Medium Earth orbit

"MEO" redirects here. For other uses, see MEO (disambiguation).

Comparison of geostationary, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Compass (MEO), International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and Iridium constellation orbits, with the Van Allen radiation belts and the Earth to scale. The Moon's orbit is around 9 times larger than geostationary orbit. (In the SVG file, hover over an orbit or its label to highlight it; click to load its article.)

To-scale diagram of low, medium and high earth orbits

Medium Earth orbit (MEO), sometimes called intermediate circular orbit (ICO), is the region of space around the Earth above low Earth orbit (altitude of 2,000 kilometres (1,243 mi)) and below geostationary orbit (altitude of 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi)).

The most common use for satellites in this region is for navigation, communication, and geodetic/space environment science. The most common altitude is approximately 20,200 kilometres (12,552 mi)), which yields an orbital period of 12 hours, as used, for example, by the Global Positioning System (GPS). Other satellites in Medium Earth Orbit include Glonass (with an altitude of 19,100 kilometres (11,868 mi)) and Galileo (with an altitude of 23,222 kilometres (14,429 mi)) constellations. Communications satellites that cover the North and South Pole are also put in MEO.

The orbital periods of MEO satellites range from about 2 to nearly 24 hours. Telstar 1, an experimental satellite launched in 1962, orbits in MEO.

The orbit is home to a number of satellites.

See also

• Atmospheric reentry
• Escape velocity
• Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
• High Earth orbit (HEO)
• Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO)
• International Space Station
• List of orbits
• Low Earth orbit (LEO)
• Satellite phone
• Specific orbital energy examples
• Suborbital spaceflight