What Is a Satellite?

A satellite is something that goes around and around a larger something, like the Earth or
another planet. Some satellites are natural, like the moon, which is a natural satellite of the
Earth. Other satellites are made by scientists and engineers to go around the Earth and
do certain jobs.

Some satellites send and receive television signals. The signal is sent from a station on
the Earth’s surface. The satellite receives the signal and rebroadcasts it to other places on
the Earth. With the right number of satellites in space, one television program can be seen
all over the world.

Some satellites send and receive telephone, fax, and computer information. Satellites
make it possible to communicate by telephone, fax, Internet, or computer with anyone in
the world.

Other satellites observe the world’s weather, sending information to giant computers
that help scientists know what the weather will be. Those scientists identify weather
patterns, like severe thunderstorms or blizzards, and let people know when they
may be in danger. The weather reporters on your favorite TV news show get their
information from those scientists.

Still other satellites take very accurate pictures of the Earth’s surface, sending
back images that tell scientists about environmental changes that are going
on around the world and about crops, water, and other resources.

The most powerful commercial satellite in the world is the Boeing 702.
Designed and built by the Boeing Satellite Development Center, this giant
has a wingspan of nearly 157 feet.

This is another kind of satellite—the Boeing 601— built by the Boeing Boeing 702
Satellite Development Center. The Boeing 601 is a slightly less powerful
satellite than the Boeing 702. The Boeing 601 wingspan is about
Boeing 601 90 feet. Both these satellites are used for many purposes, including
direct broadcast TV, a system for receiving television using a very small
satellite dish. They also relay telephone, fax, and computer information.

1
How Big Is a Satellite?
With a Boeing 702, you can put two or three smaller satellites’ worth of communication
electronics in orbit using one satellite and one launch. When the Boeing 702 is stowed for
launch, it is about 23 feet (7 meters) high. When the satellite is deployed, the solar panels
extend to a width of 157 feet (48 meters). The average Boeing 702 weighs 6505 pounds
(2950 kg) when it arrives in orbit.

Boeing 702 The Boeing 601 has a box-shaped center with several antenna
reflectors that look like big dinner plates. Long, wing-like
structures attach on two sides. These are the solar panels. The
outside of the solar panels is covered with solar cells, which
convert the sun’s energy to electricity. The bigger the panels, the
Deployed more solar cells are exposed to the sun, so the satellite can
generate more power.
Boeing 601
When a Boeing 601 is launched, its
antenna reflectors and solar panels are
stowed—that is, put away—so it can fit
inside a launch vehicle. After launch,
Deployed
the satellite travels through space
until it reaches its assigned orbital
position. Then its reflectors and solar
panels unfold—that is, open—into the
correct position for doing their work. A
stowed Boeing 601 is about 14 feet
(4.3 meters) high. When the satellite is
deployed, the solar panels extend to a
width of about 90 feet.
Stowed
The average Boeing 601 weighs about
3800 pounds (1727 kg) when it arrives
in orbit. Although this sounds heavy, Stowed
satellites are built to weigh as little as possible because the
heavier the satellite, the more expensive it is getting it into orbit.

2
What Is an Orbit?

When a satellite is launched, it GEO, or Geosynchronous Earth Orbit

is placed in a path around the
Earth. The Earth’s gravity A satellite in geosynchronous orbit circles the Earth
holds the satellite in this path in 24 hours—the same time it takes the Earth to
as it goes around the Earth, rotate one time. If these satellites are positioned over
and that path is called an the equator and travel in the same direction that the
“orbit.” There are several Earth rotates, they appear “fixed” with respect to a
kinds of orbits. Here are three given spot on Earth—that is, they hang over the
of them. same spot on the Earth all the time. Satellites in GEO
orbit are 22,300 miles above the
LEO, or Low Earth Orbit Earth. In this high orbit, GEO
satellites are always over the
A satellite in low Earth orbit circles the planet receiving stations below, and their
100 to 300 miles above the planet’s surface. signals can cover a large part of the
Because it is close to the Earth, it must travel planet. Three GEO satellites can
very fast to avoid being pulled out of orbit by cover the globe, except for the
gravity and crashing into the Earth. Satellites in North and South poles.
low Earth orbit travel about 17,500 miles per
hour. These satellites can circle the Earth in
about an hour and a half.

MEO, or Medium Earth Orbit

Satellites circling 6,000 to

12,000 miles above the Earth
are in a medium-altitude
orbit. In these larger
orbits they stay in sight
of a ground receiving MEO
station for 2 hours or
more, compared to
about 10 minutes for LEO
LEOs. It takes MEO
satellites from 4 to 8
hours to go
around the Earth.

GEO

3
How Does a Satellite Get Into Space?

The satellite is packed carefully onto a rocket and carried into space, powered by a
powerful engine.

Satellites are launched from only a few places in the world, including Cape Canaveral,
Florida; Kourou, French Guiana; and Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The best places to launch
satellites are near the ocean, so that when the rocket falls away, it lands in the water and
not on people.

Another launch site for geostationary

orbits actually travels to the perfect
launch spot.The Sea Launch company
rebuilt a big platform once used for oil
drilling at sea. The platform carries
satellites from Long Beach, California,
to the equator, far out in the Pacific Ocean, for launch.

Putting everything together for a launch is very complicated. Many people in many
companies and sometimes in many countries have to work together so that everything will
be ready for a launch. One of the ways things are coordinated is the countdown. In a
countdown, we count down instead of up, because we are counting hours or minutes until
liftoff—the moment when the rockets fire and the launch vehicle rises into the air. The last
ten seconds of the countdown sound like this: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff. The
countdown actually starts long before the day of the launch.

At launch, the rocket lifts the satellite off the launch pad and into space, where it circles the
Earth in a temporary orbit. When the rocket has used all its fuel, it drops away and one or
more engines attached to the satellite move it into its permanent orbit. The engine is
started up for a certain amount of time, sometimes just one or two minutes, to push the
satellite into place. When one of these engines is started, it’s called a burn. It may take
many burns over a period of several days to move the satellite into its correct position.

When the satellite reaches its orbit, an engine points it in the right direction and its
antennas and solar panels unfold, or deploy.

4
When the Spaceship Lands on the Moon,
Why Doesn’t It Fall Off?
The same force that keeps you on the Earth is the same force that does not let a
spaceship fall off the Moon. That force is called gravity. Gravity is the force that pulls any
two objects toward each other, no matter their size. The bigger the objects, the stronger
the force.

We are very familiar with

the measurement of this
force; it is called “weight.”
Because the Moon is
smaller than the Earth, the
force of gravity is less on
the Moon. For example, if
you weigh 100 pounds on
Earth, you would only weigh about 16 pounds on the Moon. The same is true for a space-
ship; it weighs less on the Moon but more than enough to avoid falling of its surface. The
largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter. It is much larger than the Earth, so instead of
100 pounds you would weigh more than 250 pounds.

Gravity is at work everywhere in space. Not only is it the force that keeps the spaceship
from falling off the moon, it is the force that keeps all the planets revolving around the
Sun, and the Moon around the Earth. To understand how this works is as simple as
throwing a ball.

Imagine you are on top of a tall building holding a ball in the

air and let it go. Gravity pulls the ball toward the Earth and it
falls straight down. Now throw the ball as you would to a
friend. The ball still falls and hits the ground (gravity working)
but it also travels away from you before it hits the ground.
The harder you throw the ball, the farther it travels before
hitting the ground. If you were a superhero and could throw
the ball very, very fast, it would travel all the way around the
Earth and come back to you before it hit the ground. Gravity makes it curve around the
Earth. So just how fast would you have to throw the ball? The answer is about 17,000
miles per hour—a true superhero throw!

We use rockets as our “superhero” to launch satellites. In the case of a geostationary

satellite, the rocket first needs to lift the satellite to 22,300 miles above the Earth and
then “throw” it at about 6,800 miles per hour. When the rocket does this, the satellite
will travel once around the Earth every 24 hours.

5
What Does a Satellite Do?

Satellites do many things for people. Their most important job is helping people
communicate with other people, wherever they are in the world.

A satellite can carry a camera as it travels in its orbit and take pictures of the whole
Earth. Mapmakers can use these pictures to make more accurate maps. Satellite
pictures can also help experts predict the weather, because from the satellite, the
camera can actually see the weather coming. When you watch the weather forecast on
TV, you are seeing pictures of the Earth taken by a camera riding on a satellite.

Satellites in orbit can send messages to a special receiver carried by someone on a ship
in the ocean or in a truck in the desert, telling that person exactly where he or she is.

A satellite can relay your telephone call across the country or to the other side of the
world. If you decide to telephone your friend in Mexico City, your call can be sent up in
space to a satellite, then relayed to a ground station in Mexico and sent from there to
your friend’s telephone.

A satellite can relay your computer message, fax message, or Internet data as well.
With the help of satellites, we can fax, e-mail, or download information anyplace in the
world. When the satellite sends a message from your computer or fax to another
computer or fax, it’s called data transmission. The satellite is transmitting, or sending,
information, or data.

A satellite can transmit your favorite TV program from the studio where it is made to your
TV set—even if the studio is in Japan and your TV set is in Los Angeles. From the
studio where it is made, a TV program is broadcast to a satellite. This is called an uplink.
Then it is rebroadcast from the satellite to another place on the Earth. This is called a
downlink. To link means to connect. So uplink is connecting upward to the satellite and
downlink is connecting downward to Earth. This allows news events to be transmitted
around the world instantly.

When words or pictures or computer data are sent up to a satellite, they are first changed
to an invisible signal. The signal travels up through space to the satellite and then travels
down from the satellite to its destination, where it is changed back to a voice message, a
picture, or data, so that the receiver can receive it.

6
Who Owns the Satellites?
Satellites are usually owned by companies or countries. The companies that own satellites
usually want to make money by renting out part of the satellite to other companies. The
countries or government agencies that own satellites want to make people’s lives better by
improving the communication networks in their countries.

For example, Indonesia is a country made up of 13,677 islands whose people speak more
that 250 languages. Imagine how much time and money it would take to connect them all
with wires and telephone poles. Using satellites, Indonesia bridged all the islands at once
and helped people learn the national language.

Being able to communicate better with people all over the world helps countries develop
trading opportunities, increase business, and get information they need. Many
countries—including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia,
Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States—are now increasing
opportunities for their people by buying satellites.

Many large companies also own and operate satellites. They may rent space on the
satellite to other companies and businesses. For example, a large communication
company might buy a satellite and then rent space on the satellite to television companies,
telephone companies, Internet service companies, and businesses who want to do
business in other parts of the world.

A satellite operator can let its satellite “see” as much as one-third of our planet at a time, or
it can shape the signal to reach a smaller area. For example, if you were the
Indonesian telecommunications company, you might want your satellite
signal to cover only Indonesia, and not spill over into other countries.
The satellite signal can be shaped to cover the exact area that the operator
wants to reach. Some satellites can divide their signal into many movable
spot beams. Like a tight, bright flashlight beam, a spot beam can be
aimed at an exact small area on Earth, then
moved elsewhere to reach new or
different customers.

The area of the Earth’s surface covered

by a satellite’s signal is called the
satellite’s footprint.

7
What’s Inside a Satellite?
Satellites have a great deal of equipment packed inside them. A satellite has seven
subsystems, and each one has its own work to do.

1. The propulsion subsystem includes all the motors that bring the spacecraft to its
permanent position and help keep the satellite in its assigned place in orbit. Satellites
drift out of position because of solar wind or gravitational or magnetic forces. When that
happens, the motors are fired to move the satellite back into the right position in
its orbit.

2. The power subsystem keeps the satellite going. It generates electricity from solar
panels located on the outside of the spacecraft. The solar panels also store electricity
in storage batteries, which provide power when the sun isn’t shining on the panels. A
Boeing 702 generates enough power at the end of its service life to operate two
hundred 75-watt light bulbs.

3. The communications subsystem receives signals from the Earth, amplifies or

strengthens them, and sends them to another satellite or to a ground station.

4. The structures subsystem distributes the stresses of launch and acts as a strong,
stable framework for attaching the other parts of the satellite.

5. The thermal control subsystem keeps important parts of the satellite cool enough to
work properly. It does this by directing the heat that is generated by satellite operations
out into space, like a car’s radiator.

6. The attitude control subsystem helps the satellite stay in the correct location.
Satellites can’t be allowed to jiggle or wander, because if a satellite is not exactly where
it belongs, pointed at exactly the right place on the Earth, the television program or the
telephone call it transmits to you will be interrupted. When the satellite gets out of
position, the attitude control system tells the propulsion system to fire a thruster that will
move the satellite back where it belongs.

7. Operators at the ground station need to be able to transmit commands to the satellite
and to monitor its health. The telemetry and command subsystem provides a way for
people at the ground stations to communicate with the satellite.

8
 Satellite
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30 September 2009
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980031_001.ai