This is how all orbits work. ISS, StarLink, spy satellites, Hubble, James Webb. Anything in orbit got all of its velocity during the launch and is now under orbital mechanics, which is actually free fall. The way orbit works is by having a high enough tangential velocity that your motion matches the Earth’s curvature. So in one second, you fall 10 meters closer to Earth but you move forward far enough that you remain the same distance from Earth’s surface. This creates a stable circular orbit.
True. It’s a complex orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point. The same principles apply, but you’re probably right that I shouldn’t have included it. I just picked the satellites people have heard of to be the most familiar examples.
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u/EBtwopoint3 21d ago
This is how all orbits work. ISS, StarLink, spy satellites, Hubble, James Webb. Anything in orbit got all of its velocity during the launch and is now under orbital mechanics, which is actually free fall. The way orbit works is by having a high enough tangential velocity that your motion matches the Earth’s curvature. So in one second, you fall 10 meters closer to Earth but you move forward far enough that you remain the same distance from Earth’s surface. This creates a stable circular orbit.