A geostationary orbit (or Geostationary Earth Orbit - GEO) is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0° latitude), with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. These characteristics are required so that, from locations on the surface of the Earth, geostationary objects appear motionless in the sky, making the GEO an orbit of great interest to operators of communication...
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A geostationary orbit (or Geostationary Earth Orbit - GEO) is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0° latitude), with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. These characteristics are required so that, from locations on the surface of the Earth, geostationary objects appear motionless in the sky, making the GEO an orbit of great interest to operators of communications and weather satellites. Due to the constant 0° latitude and circularity of geostationary orbits, satellites in GEO differ in location by longitude only.
The notion of a geosynchronous satellite for communication purposes was first published in 1928 (but not widely so) by Herman Potočnik. The idea of a geostationary orbit was first published on a wide scale in a paper entitled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" by Arthur C. Clarke, published in Wireless World magazine in 1945. In this paper, Clarke...
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