CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND
Two developments in the twentieth century changed the way people lived: the automobile
and telecommunications. Prior to the widespread availability of personal automobiles, in-
dividuals had to travel on foot,' by bicycle, or on horseback. Trains provided faster travel
between cities, but the lives of most people were centered on their hometowns and im-
mediate surroundings. A journey of 100 miles was a major expedition for most people,
and the easy mobility that we all take for granted in'the twenty-first century was unknown.
Before the telegraph and telephone came into Widespread use, all communication was
face-to-face, or in writing. If you wanted to talk to someone, you had to travel to meet
with that person, and travel was slow and arduous. If you wanted to send information, it
had to be written down and the papers hand carried to their destination.
Telecommunication systems have now made it p~ssible to communicate with virtu-
ally anyone at any time. Early telegraph and telephone systems used copper wire to carry
signals over the earth's surface and across oceans, and high frequency (HF) radio, also
\ commonly called short wave radio, made possible .intercontinental telephone links. Arti-
. ficial earth satellite's have been used in communications systems for more than 35 years
and have become an essential part of the world's telecommunications infrastructure. Satel-
lites allow people to talk by telephone and exchange electronic mail from anywhere in
the world and to receive hundreds of TV channels in their homes.
The origins of satellite communications can be traced to an article written by
Arthur C. Clarke in the British radio magazine Wireless World in 19451• At the time,
Clarke was serving in the British Royal Air Force, and was interested in long-distance
radio communication. He later became famous as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey,
and other science fiction books'. In 1945, Hf.radio was the only available method for
radio communication over transcontinental distances, and it was not at all reliable.
Sunspots and ionospheric disturbances could disrupt HF radio links for days at a time.
Telegraph cables had been laid across the oceans as early as the mid-1800s, but cables
capable of carrying voice signals across the Atlantic did not begin service until 1953.
Clarke suggested that a radio relay satellite in an equatorial orbit with a period of 24 h
would remain stationary with respect" to the earth's surface and make possible long-
distance radio links. At the time Clarke wrote, there were no satellites in orbit nor rockets
powerful enough to launch them. But his ideas for what we now know as a geostationary
satellite system were not science fiction, as the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik
in 1957 was to prove. In 1965 the first geostationary satellite, Early Bird, began
to provide telephone service across the Atlantic Ocean, fulfilling Clarke's vision of
20 years earlier.
Satellite communication systems were originally developed to provide long-distance
telephone service. In.the late 1960s, launch vehicles had been developed that could place
__ ~_..a.. 'a ~lYl kn <>n."",11:._ !_ .' --
2 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION '.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS 3,

For the first' time, live television links could be established across the Atlantic and Pacific satellites, has revolutionized navigation. GPS receivers have become a consumer product.
oceans to carry news and sporting ev.ents. E~entuall.y every car and cellular telephone will have a GPS receiver built mto it so that
The geostationary orbit is preferred for 'aU high capacity communication satellite ~vers ~1l1 not get lost and emergency calls from cellular phones will automatically carry
systems because a s.atellite in OEO appears to be stationary over a fixed point on the information about the phone's location.
ground. It can establish links to one-third of the earth's surface using fixed antennas at
the earth stations. This is particularly valuable for broadcasting, as a single satellite cart
serve an entire continent. Direct broadcast satellite television (DBS- TV) and the distri- 1.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATELLITE
bution of video signals for cable television networks are the largest, single revenue source COMMUNICATIONS '
for geostationary satellites, accounting for $17 B in revenues in 1998. By year 200 1, nearly
200 GEO communication satellites were in orbit, serving every part of the globe. Althoug~ Satel~ite communications began in October 1957 with the launch by the USSR of a small
television accounts for much of the traffic carried by these satellites, international and satellite called Sputnik I. This was the first artificial earth satellite, and it sparked the space
regional telephony, data transmission, and Internet access are also important. In the pop~ race bet~een the United States and the USSR. Sputnik I carried only a beacon transmit-
ulated parts of the world, the geostationary orbit is filled with satellites every 2° or 3° - ter and .dld n?t have communications capability, but demonstrated that satellites could be
operating in almost every available frequency band. placed In orbit by powerful rockets. The first satellite successfully launched by the United
GEO satellites have grown steadily in weight, size, lifetime, and cost over the years States was ~xplorer I, lofted from Cape Canaveral on January 31, 1958 on a Juno I rocket.
Some of the largest satellites launched to. date are the KH and Lacrosse surveillance satel The. first voice heard from space was that of-President Eisenhower, who recorded a brief
lites of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office weighing an estimated 13,600 kg (30,000 Christmas message that was transmitted back to earth from the Project Score satellite in
Ib)3. By 2000, commercial telecommunications satellites weighing 6000 kg with lifetime Dec~mber 195~. !he ~c?re satellite was essentially the core of the Atlas ICBM (inter-
of 15 years were being launched into geostationary orbit at a typical cost around $125 continental ballistic ffilssI~e) booster with a small, payload in the nose. A tape recorder on
for the satellite and launch. The revenue earning capacity of these satellites must excee Score had a storage capacity that allowed a 4 min message received from an, earth 'station
$20 M per year for the venture to be profitable, and they must compete with optical fibe to be retransmitted. The batteries on Score failed after 35 days in orbit.
in carrying voice, data, and video signals. A single optical fiber can carry 4.5 Gbps, a ca After som~ e~ly a~tempts to use large balloons (Echo I and II) as passive reflec-
pacity similar to that of the largest GEO satellites, and optical fibers are never laid singl tors for cOIIll~lUn~catlOn SIgnals, and some small experimental satellite launches, the first .
but always in bundles. But GEO satellites can compete effectively on flexibility of delive . true commumcat~ons satellit~s, Telstar I and II, were launched in July 1962 and May 1963.
point. Any place within the satellite coverage can be served by simply installing an e The Telstar satelhtes were, budt. by Bell T~lephone Laboratories and used C-band transpon-
terminal. To do the same with a fiber-optic link requires fiber to be laid. Fiber-optic trans ders adap~ed from terrestnal microwave link equipment. The uplink was at 6389 MHz and
mission systems compete effectively with satellites where there is a requirement for big the downlink was at 4169 MHz, with 50-MHz bandwidth. The satellites carried solar cells
capacity or, equivalently, when the user MIisity exceeds the required economic threshold, and. batterie~ ~at ~llowed continuous use of the single transponder, and demonstrations
GEQ satellites have been supplemented by low and medium earth orbit satellites fa of live televlsI~n links and multiplexed telephone circuits were made across the· Atlantic
special applications. Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites can provide satellite telephone an Ocean, emphatically demonstrating the feasibility of satellite communications. .
data services over continents or over the entire world, and by 2000 three systems were i . ' ~e Telstar satellites were launched into what is now called a medium earth orbit,
orbit or nearing completion, with a total of 138 LEO satellites. LEO satellites are als WI~ penods of ~58 and 225 min. This allowed transatlantic links to operate for about 20 min
~used for earth imaging and surveillance. Although not strictly a satellite communication while the satellite was mutually visible. The orbits chosen for the, Telstar satellites took
system, the Global Positioning System (GPS), which uses 24 medium earth orbit (ME the~ through several bands of high energy radiation which caused early failure of the elec-
trorucs on board. However, the value of communication satellites had been demonstrated
~d work ,:as begun to develop launch vehicles that could deliver a payload to geosta-
5 iDE IIA R . -- , . _. ,- o ~, ' '- " ,- tionary orbit, and to develop satelliteszhat could provide useful communication capacity.
On J~ly ~4, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy defined the general guidelines
The high capacity of both optical fibers and satellites, To put the reduction in the cost of an international tel of U.S. poltcy.m regard to ~atellite communications and made the first unambiguous ref-
.and the steady move of telecommunications traffic phone call in perspective, we must remember that' erences to a SIngle worldwide system. On December 20, 1961, the U.S. Congress rec- .
ft'(' ,,\MOgsignals to digital has lowered the cost of comes have risen significantly over this time peri ommended that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) should examine the
nee telephone calls and increased enor- In the 1950s, a typical blue-collar wage was $1.50 aspects of s~~ce communic~tions for which international cooperation would be necessary.
mber of circuits available. In 1960, prior hour, so a blue-collar worker had to work for 40 !he.most cnti~al step was In August 1962, when the U.S. Congress passedthe Commun-
satellite communications, the United 'to pay for a call to Europe, ignoring any tax ded tcations Satellite Act. This set the stage for commercial investment in an international
erseas telephone circuits. Calls to tions. In 2000, the average worker in the United Sta 11"
$1 per minute at 1960 prices, earned $11.00 per hour, and had to work less thai sate ite organization and, on July 19,1964, representatives of thefirst 12 countries U-.l
toin_
gh an operator, with delays min to pay for the international call. The United S ~est. i~ what be~~e Intelsat (the International Telecommunications Satellite Organiza-
n. In 2000, virtually all now has hundreds of thousands of overseas teleph ~~~) Sl~ne? an .initial agreement. The company that represented the United States at this
----. initial li:lan1na (,PY'P1'nnn" nlO"" r"" ....
nn. ..!.... '1" __ U '. __ , •
4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATELLITE COMMUNICAnONS 5
States. When Congress passed the Communications Satellite Act, the Bell System was
.The astonishi~g commercial success of I~telsat led many nations to invest in their
specifically barred from directly participating in satellite communications,
permitted to invest in Comsat.
although it was
satellite systems. :ru
s was particularly true in the United States. By the end of 1983, tele-
Comsat essentially managed Intelsat in the formative years and should be credited phone traffic carried by the U.S. domestic satellite systems earned more revenue than the
with the remarkable success of the international venture. The first five Intelsat series of . Intelsat system. ~any of the original Intelsat Signatories had been privatized by the early
satellites (INTELSAT I through V) were selected, and their procurement managed, "by 1990~ and were, m effect, competing not only with each other in space communications,
teams put in place under Comsat leadership. Over this same phase, though, large portions but With I~telsat. It was clear that some mechanism had to be found whereby Intelsat could
of the Cornsat engineering and operations groups transferred over to Intelsat so that, when b~ turned. mt~ a for-~rofit.' private entity, which could then compete with other commer-
the Permanent "Management Arrangements came into force in 1979, many former Comsat cial organizations while still safeguarding the interests of the smaller nations that had come
groups were now part of Intelsat, " ~o depend on the ~e~~kably low communications cost that Intelsatuffered. The first step
In mid-1963, 99% of all satellites had been launched into LEO. LEO, and the slightly m the m~ve to pnvanzmg Intelsat was the establishment of a commercial company called
higher medium earth orbit (MEO), were much easier to reach than GEO with the small New Skies and the transfer of a number of Intelsat satellites to New Skies. .
launchers available at that time. The intense debate was eventually settled on launcher reo . I~ the 197?s and 1980s there was rapid development of GEO satellite systems for
liability issues rather than on payload capabilities. The first 6 years of the so-called space. international, regl?nal, and domestic telephone traffic and video distribution. In the United
age was a period of both payload and launcher development. The new frontier was veri States, the expansion of fiber-optic links with very high capacity and low delay caused vir-
risky, with about one launch in four being fully successful. The system architecture of th tually all.telephone traffic to move to terrestrial circuits by 1985. However, the demand
first proposed commercial communications satellite system employed 12 satellites in at for satellite sy~tems grew. steadily through this period, and the available spectrum in
equatorial MEO constellation. Thus, with the launch failure rate at the time, 48 launchei C band was qU1ckl~ occupied, leading to expansion into Ku band. In the United States,
were envisioned to guarantee 12 operational satellites in orbit. Without 12 satellites in or most of the expansl?n after 1985 was in the areas of video distribution and VSAT (very
bit, continuous 24-h coverage could not be offered. Twenty-four hours a day, seven da)'l small aperture termmal) networks. By 1995 it was clear that the GEO orbit capacity at
a week-referred to as 24/7 operation-is a requirement for any successful communica Ku band ~ould so?~ be filled, and Ka-band satellite systems would be needed to handle
tions service. A GEO systems architecture requires only one satellite to provide 24/7 OR the expansl~n of digital traffic, especially wide band delivery of high-speed Internet data.
eration over essentially one-third of the inhabited world. On this basis, four launches woul SES, based m Luxemburg, began two-way multimedia and Internet access service in west-
be required to achieve coverage of one third of the earth; 12 for the entire inhabited worl ern ~d central Europe at Ka band using the Astra 1H satellite in 20016• Several Ka-band
Despite its unproven technological approach, the geostationary orbit was selected by th satellite syste.~s are expec.ted to be operational in the United States by 20037.8.
entities that became Intelsat. The ability of satellite systems to provide communication with mobile users had
The first Intelsat satellite, INTELSAT I (formerly Early Bird) was launched on Ap long bee~ recogn~zed, and the International Maritime Satellite Organization (lnmarsat)
16, 1965~ The satellite weighed a mere 36 kg (80 11;) and incorporated two 6/4 GH has provld~d service to ships and aircraft for several decades, although at a high price.
transponders, each with 25-MHz bandwidth. Commercial operations commenced betwee LEO satellites were seen as one way to create a satellite telephone system with worldwide
Europe and the United States on June 28, 1965. Thus, about 2 decades after Clarke's land coverage; .numerous ~roposals were floated in the 1990s, with three LEO systems eventu-
mark article in Wireless World, GEO satellite communications began. Intelsat \\{as highl ally reaching completion by. 2000 (Iridium, Globalstar, and Orbcomm). The implementation
successful and grew rapidly as many countries saw the value of improved telecommunr of a LEO and ~EO satellite system for mobile communication has proved much more
cations, not just internationally but for national systems that provided high quality satelli costly than anticipated, and the capacity of the systems is relatively small compared to
communications within the borders of large countries .
.Canada was the first country to build a national telecommunication system usi
GEO satellites. Anik lA was launched in May 1974, just 2 months before the first U. SIDEBAR
domestic satellite, WESTAR 1. The honor of the first regional satellite system, howeve .
goes to the USSR Molniya system of highly elliptic orbit (HEO) satellites, the first The first ~tep in the move to privatizing Intelsat was Intelsat is currently (2000) in the process of re-
which was launched in April 1965 (the same month as INTELSAT I). Countries that ~ the esta~ltshment Of.a ~ommerci~ company called newing its major assets through the purchase of up to
geographically spread like the USSR, which covers 11 time zones, have used region NedwSki eOs·NNew Sbkiels919s8b~ed In ~e Netherlands seven INTELSAT IX satellites from SS-Loral to re-
" . an , on 3 ovem er SIX satellites were trans-
place the-current fleet of INTELSAT VI, and some of
satellite systems very effectively. Another country that benefited greatly from a GEO ferred from Int·l t 'hi· N .Ski
• • •• • I' e sa owners p to ew es. There the INTELSAT VII, satellites. Each of these satellites
gional system was Indonesia, which consists of more than 3000 Islands spread out ov was one INTELSAT V series satellite (IS-513 at
carries the equivalent of 96 units of 36 MHz band-
more than a t?0usand miles. A terrestrially based telecommunication system was not ec 183° E), one INTELSAT VII series satellite (IS-703
width. The satellites will be located at 62° E, 60° E,
nomic ally feasible for these countries, while a single GEO satellite allowed instant co at 57° E), two INTELSAT VIII series satellites 335.so E, 325.5° E, 332.5° E, 342° E. and 328.5° E.
munications region wide. Such ease of communications via GEO satellites proved to (lS-803 at 338.5° E and IS-806 at 319.5° E), the More details on the Intelsat fleet of satellites can be
very profitable. Within less than 10 years, Intelsat was self-supporting and, since it INTELSAT-K satellite (in inclined orbit at 338.5° E), found at http://www.intelsat.int.· Intelsat is moving
not allowed to make a profit, it began returning substantial revenues to what were kno and a new satellite designed for direct broadcast serv- forw~d ~ith. plans to privatize the remainder of the
as its Siznatories. Within 25 vears.lntelsat ha more than tOO Si.l7n::ltnrie~4 anti in ea ices K-1V at 95° E). New Skies has as their nrim~ n~n1.7~hl'\ft .... 1... ')(\(\...,J...,OO., ..: __
J!__~_ .. ~
8 CHAPTER' INTRODUC'I1ON

GEO satellite systems, le~ding to a higher cost per transmitted bit. Satellite telephone sys-
tems were unable to compete with cellular telephone systems because of the high cost
and relatively low capacity of the space segment. The Iridium system, for example, cost
over $5 B to implement, but provided a total capacity for the United States of less than
10.,000 telephone circuits. Iridium Inc. declared bankruptcy in early 2000, having failed
to establish a sufficiently large customer base to make the venture viable. The entire Irid-
ium system was sold to Iridium Satellite LLC for a reported $25 M, approximately 0..5%
of the system's construction cost. The future of the other LEO and MEO satellite telephone
systems also seemed uncertain at the time this book was written.
Satellite navigation 'systems, notably the Global Positioning System, have revolu-
i
.t:
of ...
o
o
o ....
o o
o ~ .... o
....
it)
o
tionized navigation and surveying. The Global Positioning System took almost 20. years ....
to design and fully implement, at a cost of $12 B. By 20.0.0.,OPS receivers could be built
in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) form for less than $25, and the worldwide'
OPS industry was earning billions of dollars from equipment sales and services. In the
United States, aircraft navigation will depend almost entirely on OPS by 20.10, and blind
'"0
landing systems using OPS will also be available. Accurate navigation of ships, especially '"0 '"0 c '"0
c
e c: co
co
in coastal waters and bad weather, is also heavily reliant on OPS. Europe is building a co co.Q
.Q .Q co .Q
comparable satellite navigation system called Gallileo. ...J U~ ::s
~
~ NN
.... .... ...
CD

1~3 SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS IN 2000 III

c III
e
,g o
';:;
co
CJ
co e
.S:! Q) 0
Tables 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 list the majority of the OEO, MEO, and LEO communication 'c::s c E 'iii
satellites In orbit in 2000.. The list is not exhaustive, and excludes satellites used solely E
::s
E
o '> ~
.c: ~ ';:;
E E o Q) III
for military communications and surveillance, and those used primarily for weather .fore- o o "'~B
casting and earth imaging. Not all the communications satellites are included, and exper- ~ ~ ~ ,~ ~0
;! ;! ...
o~.c
0)

imental and scientific satellites are omitted. In all, Tables 1.1 and 1.2 list a total. of 172
geostationary communication satellites. When other satellites in geostationary orbit are
considered, there were close to 20.0. OEO satellites in operation in 20.0.0.(Table 1.4).
OEO satellites have always been the backbone of the commercial satellite cornmu- ~
nications industry. Large OEO satellites can serve one-third of the earth's surface, and can ~
carry up to 4 Gbps of data, or transmit up to 16 high power direct broadcast satellite tele-
CD~
~~ 1Q
~
to..
vision (DBS-TV) signals, each of which can deliver several video channels. The weight (/) III
S
and power of OEO satellites have also increased. In 20.0.0.a large OEO satellite could ~ ~ III
o
o E s:
CJ
weigh lo.,OOO'kg(10 tons), might generate 12 kW of power, and carry 60. transponders, .... .5' w
with a trend toward even higher powers but lower weight. For example, in 20.0.1 Space
System/Loral contracted with APT Satellite Company Ltd. in Hong Kong to build the
Apstar- V satellite, a OEO satellite serving Asia with a mass of 4845 kg when injected
into geostationary orbit and an expected lifetime of 13 years. Apstar-V will generate an
initial power of 10..6 kW, and carry 38 C-band transponders with 60.-W output power and
16 Ku-band transponders at 141 W each". Satellites generating 25 kW and carrying
antennas with hundreds of beams are planned for the time frame 2005.,.20.10..
Television program distribution and DBS- Tv have become the major Source of rev,
enue for commercial satellite system operators, earning more than half of the industry'
$30. B revenues for 1998. By the end of 20.00 there were over 14 million DBS-TV cus
tomers in the United States. The high capacity of OEO satellites results from the use 0
high-power terrestrial transmitters and .relativelv hiah a~in ~rih ...tftt: ...._ 08_" ",_ 'C_...I.l. ~~_~:______~_~~ _
 TABLE 1.1 (continuod)

Organization Satellites· Type Transponders Orbit location

GE-1A and GE-5 are

Sateom C-l, 3, 4, 5 designated for 24 C band 131° W through 139° W
broadcasting only
Satcom K-2 16 Ku band 85°W
Spacenet 3, 4 18 C band 85° W, 83° W
6 Ku band
Loral Skynet, Telstar 4, 5, 6, 7 Broadcasting, 24 C band 89° W, 97° W, 93° W,
Bedminster, NJ video distribution, 16 to 28 Ku band 129° W
http://www.loralskynet.com Telstar 11, 12 telecommunications 34, 38 Ku band 37.5° W, 34° W
PanAmSat Corp., Galaxy 1RR; 5, 6, 9 Telecommunications 24 C band 133° W, 125° W,
Greenwich, CT 74° W, 123° W
http://www.panamsat.com Galaxy 3R Telecommunicatiuns 24 C band, 8 Ku band 95° W
Galaxy 7 Telecommunlcatlons • 8 C band, 32 Ku band 91° iN
Galaxy 8L DBS-TV broadcasting 91° W
to Latin America Up to 24 C band
Up to 36 Ku band
PAS 1, 3R, 4, 5, 6B, 7 Telecommunications 16 C band, 16 Ku band' 43° W through 68.5° W
24 C band, 24 Ku band
PAS 2,8 Telecommunications 36 Ku band 169° W, 166° W
PAS 6 DBS-TV broadcasting 43° W
to South America 14, 14, 19 Ku band
SBS-4, 5, 6 Telecommunications 77° W, 123° W,
74° W
WorldSpace Corp., AfriStar Audio broadcasting 6 HP Ku band 21° E
Washington, DC
http://www.worldspace.com AmeriStar Broadcasting 95°W
AsiaStar Broadcasting 105° E

a Telecommunications means any form of signal that can be sent through a satellite transponder, including analog and digital voice, data, and video.
For more complete information about these satellite systems consult reference 6.
There are 71 GEO satellites listed in the above table.

TABLE 1.2 GEO Satellite Systems: Non-U.S. and International Operators (after 3, 5)

Organization Satellites Type Transponders Orbit location

ACeS Asia Cellular Garuda 1 Mobile communications 140 with spot beams 123° E
Satellite, Indonesia
www.acesinternational.com
Arab Satellite Arabsat 2A Broadcasting 22 C band, 12' Ku band 26° E
Communications
Organization, Arabsat 2B Broadcasting, . 22 C band, 12 Ku band 30.5° E
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia telecommunications
www.arabsat.com Arabsat 3A Broadcasting 20 Ku band 26° E
Asia Broadcasting and L-Star 1 Broadcasting 32 Ku band 126° E
-Communications
Network, Ltd., L-Star 2 Telecommunications 32 Ku band 1260 E
Bangkok, Thailand
Asia Satellite Asiasat 1 Broadcasting 24 C band 122~ E
Telecommunications Co. Asiasat 2 24 C band, 9 Ku band 100.50 E
Ltd., Asiasat 3S Telecommunications 28 C band, 16 Ku band lOSS E
Hong Kong, PRC
www.asiasat.com
Broadcasting Satellite BSat-1A, BSat-, B DBS-TV 4 Ku band 110° E
System Corp.,
Tokyo, Japan BS-3N Broadcasting 3 Ku band 109.85° E
Deutsche Telekom DFS Kopernikus (1, 2) Broadcasting, 10 Ku band, 1 Ka band 23.5 ° E, 28S E
Geschaftsbereich telecommunications
Hundfunk,
Bon-Bad Godesburg,
Germany
www.dtag.de
Embratel, Brasilsat A2 DBS-TV 24 C band 92°W
Rio De Janiero, Brazil broadcasting
Brasilsat 81 28 C band. 1 X band 70° W
Brasilsat B2 28 C band, 1 X band 65° W
Brasilsat 83 28 C band 84° W

(continued)
 TABLE 1.2 (continued)

Type TranSponders Orbit location

Organization Satellites

Eutelsat 1 F-4, F-5 Broadcasting, • 10 Ku band (+2 spare) , 25.5° E, 21.5° E

Eutelsat,
Paris, France telecommunications
www.eutelsat.com
Eutelsat 2 F-l, F-2, F-3, Broadcasting, 16 Ku band (+8 spare) 48° E. 12.5° E. 36'" E.
telecommunications 10° E
F-4
16° E. r E
Eutelsat W2, W3 Broadcasting, 24 Ku band
telecommunications
Hot Bird DBS-TV '. 16 Ku band 13° E

Hot Bird 2, 3, 4 DBS-TV 20 Ku band All at 13° E

Inmarsat 2F-l, 2F-2, Mobile L band, 179° E, 98° W. 65° E

Inmarsat Ltd.,
2F-3,2F-4 telecommunications demand assigned 1098 E
London. UK
wwwjnmarsat.org
Inmarsat 3F-l, 3F-2, 64° E, 15.5° E. 17ac»E
3F-3, 3F-4, 3F-5 54° W. 250 E

Intelsat 505 Broadcasting, 21 C band, 6 Ku band 72° E

Intelsat,
Washington, DC, USA telecommunications
Intelsat 510,511 26 C band, 6 Ku band, 33° E, 330.5° E
www.intelsat.int
1 L band
Intelsat 601, 602, 603, 64 C band, 24 Ku band 325.5° E, 62° E, 335.5° E
604,605 60° E, 332..so E
Intelsat 701, 702, 704, 42 C band, 20 Ku band 1800 E, 17r E, 66° E
3420 E, 3100 E
705, 709
Intelsat 706, 707 Broadcasting, 42 C band, 28 Ku band' 3070 E. 359" E
telecommunications
lntelsat 801, 802, 804 64 C band, 12 Ku band 328.50 E. 1740 E.,64° E
Intelsat 805 36 C band, 6 Ku band 304.50 E

JCSat-1B, JCSat-2 Telecommunications 32 Ku band 1500 E. 1540 E

JaPan Satellite Systems
Inc ••
JCSat-3 Broadcasting 12 C band, 28 Ku band 128° E
Tokyo, Japan
www.jcsat.co.jp
JCSat-4A Telecommunications 32 Ku band 124° E
---- -
Korea Telecom, Koreasat 1, 2 Broadcasting 15 Ku band 116" E, 113 E
0

Korea
www.kt.co.kr ' Koreasat 3 Telecommunications 30 Ku band, 3 Ka band 1160 E
Mabuhay Philippines Agila 2 DBS-TV. 30 C band, 24 Ku band 1460 E
Sat~lIite Corp •• broadcasting.
Makati City, ~hilippines telecommunications
NahuelSat, SA, Nahuel 1 Broadcasting 18 Ku band 71.80 W
Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.nahuelsat.com.ar Nahuel2 Telecommunications 46 C band, 36 Ku band 81°W
New Skies Satellites, NS 513 Telecommunications 42 C band, 12 Ku band 183° E
N.V .•
The Hague, Netherlands NS5703 Broadcasting, 46 C band, 20 Ku band 57° E
www.newskiessat.com telecommunications
NS5803' Broadcasting,
•
64 C band, 12 Ku band 21.50 W
telecommunications
NSS 806 Broadcasting, 36 C band, 6 Ku band 40.5°W
telecommunications
NSS K Broadcasting, 16 Ku band 21.5° W
telecommunications
PT Pasifik SateHt Garuda 1 Mobile communications 140 spot beams 1230 E
Nusantara,
Bekasi, Indonesia ' Broadcasting, 4 Ku band 1130 E
www.psn.cojd Palapa Cl telecommunications
Sino Satellite SinoSat 1 Broadcasting, 24 C band, 14 Ku band 1230 E
Communications Co., telecommunications
Ltd .• Beijing, PRC
www.sinosat.com
Societe Europenne des Astra lA, lB DBS-TV, multimedia 16 Ku band 19.2° E
Satellites, C';", {SESr, Astra ic. 10 DBS-TV, multimedia 20 Ku band 19.2° E
Betzdorf, LUxembourg Astra lE, IF DBS-TV, multimedia 20, 22 Ku band 19.2° E
www.astra.lu Astra lG DBS- TV, multimedia 30 Ku band 19.20 E
Astra 2A, 2B DBS-TV, multimedia 32, 30 Ku band 28.20 E
Astra 2G DBS-TV, multimedia 16 Ku band 28.2° E

(continued)

! ~'i
 TABLE 1.2 (continued)

Organization Satellites Type Transponders Orbit location

Space Communications Superbird A Broadcasti ng, 23 Ku band, 2 Ka band 158° E
Corp., telecommunications
Tokyo, Japan Superbird B 23 Ku band, 2 Ka band 162° E
wwvv.superbird.co.jp
Superbird C 23 Ku band, 2 Ka band 144° E
Spacecom Satellite Amos 1 DBS-TV, 7 Ku band 4°W
Communication telecommunications
Services,
Ramat-Gan, Israel
www.spacecom.co.il
Swedish Space Corp., Sirius 1 DBS-TV 5 Ku band 5° E
Solna, Sweden
www.ssc.se Sirius 2 DBS-TV. VSAT 32 Ku band 5° E
networks
Sirius 3 DBS-TV 15 Ku band
Telenor Satellite Thor 1 Broadcasting, 5 Ku band 1° E
Services AS, telecommunications
Oslo, Norway Thor 2 15 Ku band 1°. E
www.telenor.com
Thor 3 14 Ku band 1° E
Telesat Canada, Anik E1 Broadcasting, 14 C band, 12 Ku band 111.1° W
Gloucester, ON, Canada telecommunications
www.telesat.ca Anik E2 14 C band, 12 Ku band 107.3° W
TMI Communications, MSat 1 Mobile communications 16 l band, 1 Ku pand 106.5° W
Ottawa, Canada
www.tmisolutions.com
Turk Telekom. Turksat 1B, 1C Broadcasting, 31.3° E, 42° E
Ankara, Turkey telecommunications

There are 101 sateltft~s listed in Table1.2.

TABLE 1.3 LEO and MEO,Sa~ellite Sy.tem. (after 3, 5)

Organization Satellites Type Transponders Constellation orbit

Globalstar,
San Jose, CA, USA
www.globalstar.com
Iridium llC, . 66 lEO satellites with
Washington, DC, USA
www.iridium.com .
Orbcomm Global L.P.,
Dulles, VA, USA
www.orbcomm.com
48 lEO satellites with Mobile communications,
four spares in orbit satellite telephones,
all digital
Mobile communications,
seven spares in orbit satellite telephones,
an digitat
28 lEO satellites Data transmission to
handheld and mobile
terminals
16 spot beams within Six orbital planes
footprint. Each beam inclined at 52°, eight
has multipte 1.25-MHz satellites per plane
channels with 1 to 13 1413 km altitude
channels per beam. (763 nm)
Multiple access through'
COMA. l- and S-band
links to mobiles
48 spot beams with Six orbited planes
seven RF channels in inclined at 84.6°, eleven
8 MHz. l-band links satellites per plane
to mobiles. Ka-band 898 km altitude
links to Gateways. f485 nm)
22 GHz satellite cross
links. Multiple access
through FDMA/TDMA
Bent pipe transponder 24 satellites in 45°
with earth coverage inclined orbits.
beams. Data rate up to Two in 700 inclined
2400 bps in 0.1-s bursts orbits, two inclined 1080
vhf links to mobiles
(uplink 148 MHz,
downlink 137 MHz)
14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.4 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS 15

TABLE 1.4 Other Satellite Systems

Successive World Radio Conferences have allocated new frequency bands for com-
System Satellite. Type and Ilfetlme Application Orbits mercial satellite services that now include L, S, C, Ku, K, Ka, V, and Q bands. Mobile satel-
lite systems use vhf, uhf, L, and S bands with carrier frequencies from 137 to 2500 MHz,
Global positioning Navstar GPS , Design lifetime 7.5 ye'ars Navigation, Six orbital and OEO satellites use frequency bands extending from 3.2 to 500Hz. Despite the growth
System (GPS),: 13 through 21 early warning planes with of fiber-optic links with very high capacity, the demand for satellite systems continues to in-
operated by U.S. 22 through 40 Design lifetime 10 years four satetlites
Air Force per plane at
crease. Satellites have also become integrated into complex communications architectures that
Useful web sites: 43, 44, 45 Design lifetime 1Q years 20,200 krn use each element of the network to its best advantage. Examples are VSAT/WLL (very small
www.navcen.uscq.rnll altitude. aperture terminals/wireless local loop ) in countries where the communications infrastructure
www.laafb.af.mil/SMC/ All satellites broadcast Inclination is not yet mature and OEO/LMDS (local multipoint distribution systems) for the urban fringes
CZ/homepage/ COMA signals on two of orbital of developed nations where the build-out of fiber has yet tq be an economic proposition.
http://gps.faa.gov/ L-band frequencies plane is 55°
http://www.spacecom.
af.rnil
1.4 OVERViEW OF SATELLITE
COMMUNICATIONS
low gain antennas, such as those designed for use by mobile users. Consequently, OEO Satellite communication systems exist because the earth is a sphere. Radio waves travel
satellites look set, to be the largest revenue earners in space for the foreseeable future. in straight lines at the microwave frequencies used for wideband communications, so a
Figure 1.1 shows the estimated' growth in revenue from all satellite communication repeater is needed to convey signals over long distances. Sateilites, because they can link
services, projected to 2010.
places on the earth that arethousands of miles apart, are a good place to locate a repeater,
All radio systems require frequency spectrum, and the delivery of high-speed data and a OEO- satellite is the best place of all. A repeater is simply a receiver linked to a
requires a wide bandwidth. Satellite communication systems started in C band, with an transmitter, always using different radio frequencies, that can receive a signal from one
allocation of 500 MHz, shared with terrestrial microwave links. As the OEO orbit filled earth station, amplify it, and retransmit it to another earth station. The 'repeater derives
up with satellites operating at C band, satellites were built for the next available frequency its name from nineteenth century telegraph links, which had a maximum length of about,
band, Ku band. There is a continuing demand for ever more spectrum to allow satellites 50 miles. Telegraph repeater stations were required every 50 miles in a long-distance link
to provide new services, with high speed-access to the Internet forcing a move to Ka-band so that the Morse code signals could be re-sent before they became too weak to read.
, and even higher frequencies. Access to the Internet from small transn?,t~ng Ka-band earth The majority of communication satellites are in geostationary earth orbit, at an
, stations located at the home offers a way to bypass the terrestrial telephone network and altitude of 35,786 km. Typical path length from an earth station to a OEO satellite is
, achieve much higher bit rates. SES began two-way Ka-band Internet access in Europe in 38,500 km. Radio signals get weaker in proportion to the square of the distance trav-
1998 with the Astra-Ksatellite, and the next generation of Ka-band satellites in the United eled, so signals reaching a satellite are always very weak. Similarly, signals received on
States will offer similar services. . earth from a satellite 38,500 km away are also very weak, because of limits on the
weight of OEO satellites and the electrical power they can generate using solar cells. It
costs roughly $25,000 per kilogram to get a geostationary satellite in orbit. This obvi-
200
I ously places severe restrictions on the size and weight of OEO satellites, since the high
I
en::j I
I cost of building and launching a satellite must be recovered over a 10 to 15 year lifetime
I
~ I by selling communications capacity. ,
15 I
II)
I Satellite communication systems are dominated by the need to receive very weak
c: J

s:0 I
I
I signals: In the early days, very ,large receiving antennas, with diameters up to 30 m, were
needed to collect sufficient signal po-wer to drive video signals or multiplexed telephone
I
.S I
channels. As satellites have become larger, heavier, and more powerful, smaller earth
I
Q)
::::s
100 I
c: I station antennas have become feasible, and Direct Broadcast Satellite TV (DBS- TV) re-
I
~. ,
I
ceiving systems can use dish antennas as small as 0.5 m in diameter. .
,,
"

Q)
'0
Satellite systems operate in the microwave and millimeter wave frequency bands,
'i using frequencies between 1 and 500Hz. Above 100Hz, rain causes significant attenu-
'0
ation of the signal and the probability that rain will occur in the path betweenthe satellite
~ and an earth station must be factored into the system design. Above 200Hz, attenuation
in heavy rain (usually associated with thunderstorms) can cause sufficient attenuation that
0
1980 1990 2000 2010 the link will fail.
Year ---,
 16 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.5 SUMMARY
nil'
, I
Satellite communication systems have become an
essential part of the world's telecommunications in-
frastructure, serving billions of people with tele-
phone, data, and video services. Despite the growth
of fiber-optic links, which have much greater ca-
pacity than satellite systems and a lower cost per
bit, satellite systems continue to thrive and invest-
ment in new systems continues. Satellite services
have shifted away from telephony toward video and
data delivery, with television broadcasting directly
to the home emerging as one of the most powerful
applications. GEO satellites carry the majority of
REFERENCES
1. A. C. CLARKE. "Extra-terrestrial Relays," Wireless World,
pp. 305-308. 1945.
2. A. C. CLARKE, 2001: A Space Odyssey. New American
Library. New York.
3. Aviation Week and Space Technology. Aerospace Source
Book. McGraw-Hill, New York. Vol. 153. No.3. January
17.2000.
4. D. W. E. REES. "Satellite Communications: The First
Quarter Century of Service." John Wiley & Sons, New
York. 1989.
~j_L_~~~~~~~~~~~
ORBITAL MECHANICS
AND LAUNCHERS
I that exceeds 50 miles (~80 krn); some international treaties hold that the space frontier
services, because the use of high gain fixed ante
nas at earth stations maximizes the capacity of th
satellite. Over the years! there has been a trend awa
from trunk communications using very large ea
station antennas toward delivery from more power
ful satellites to individual users using much small
antennas. LEO and ME-O satellites are used for mc ,
bile communications, and navigation systems an
as the need for Geographic Information Systerr
grows with a variety of applications. LEO earth in
aging satellites have the potential to provide stron
revenue streams,
5. Aviation Week and Space Technology. Aerospace SOlin
Book, McGraw-Hill. New York, Vol. 154. No.
pp. 161-179 and pp. 249-266, Jan. 15,2001.
,6. http://www.astra.lu
7. www.astrolink.com
8. www.hns.com.spaceway
__ ~~~ __ ~~~
Developing the Equations of the Orbit
This chapter is about how earth orbit is achieved, the laws that describe the motion of an
object orbiting another body, how satellites maneuver in space, and the determination of
the look angle to a satellite from the earth using ephemeris data that describe the orbital
trajectory of the satellite.
To achieve a stable orbit around the earth, a spacecraft must first be beyond the bulk
of the earth's atmosphere, i.e., in what is popularly called space. There are many defini-
tions of space. U.S. astronauts are awarded their "space wings" if they fly at an altitude
above a given country begins at a height of 100 miles (~160 km). Below 100 miles, per-
mission must be sought to over-fly any portion of the country in question. On reentry, at-
mospheric drag starts to be felt at a height of about 400,000 ft (~76 miles = 122 km),
Most satellites, for any mission of more than a few months, are placed into orbits of at
least 250 miles (=400 krn) above the earth. Even at this height, atmospheric drag is sig-
nificant. As an example, the initial payload elements of the International Space Station
(ISS) were injected into orbit at an altitude of 397 km when the shuttle mission left those
modules on 9 June 1999. By the end of 1999, the orbital height had decayed to about
360 km, necessitating a maneuver to raise the orbit. Without onboard thrusters and suffi-
cient orbital maneuvering fuel, the ISS would not last more than a few years at most in
such a low orbit. To appreciate the basic .1.awsthat govern celestial mechanics, we will be-
gin first with the fundamental Newtonian equations that describe the motion of a body.
We will then give some coordinate axes within which the orbit of the satellite can be set
and determine the various forces on the earth satellite.
Newton's laws of motion can be encapsulated into four equations:
s = ut + {Dat2 (2.1a)
v2 = u2 + 2at (2.1 b)
v = u + at (2.1c)
P= rna (2.1d)
where s is the distance traveled from time t = 0; u is the initial. velocity of the object at
time t = 0 and v the fmal velocity of the object at time t; a is the acceleration of the ob-
ject; P is the force acting on the object; and m is the mass of the object. Note that the ac-
celeration can be positive or negative, depending on the direction it is acting with respect
__to the velocity vector. Of these four equations. it i~ the l~ct nn"" th"t h~l_n ••n ••
_.J ~__
 16 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

improvement so that video and telephone signals can be delivered with signal-to-no]
ratios (SIN) of 50 dB. The penalty for the improvement is that the radio frequency CRF
CHAPTER 2
signal occupies a much larger bandwidth than the baseband signal. In satellite links, tha
penalty results because signals are always weak and the improvement in signal-to-noj,
ORBITAL MECHANICS
ratio is essential.
The move toward. digital communications in terrestrial telephone and data trans AND LAUNCHERS
mission has been mirrored by a similar move toward digital transmission over satelli~
links .. In the U~it~d States, only TV ~istributio~ at C band re~ain~ as the major analll!
satellite transmission system. Even this last bastion of analog Signaling seems destined 1\
disappear as cable TV stations switch over to digital receivers that allow six TV signal!
to be sent though a single Ku-band transponder. More importantly, dual standards per
2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS
mitting the transmission of not only digital TV but also high definition TV (HDTV), wit
eventually remove analog TV from consideration.
Developing the Equations of the Orbit
Almost all other signals are digital-telephony, data, DBS-TV, radio broadcasting
and navigation with GPS all use digital signaling techniques. All of the LEO and ME This chapter is about how earth orbit is achieved, the laws that describe the motion of an
mobile communication systems are digital, taking advantage of voice compression tech object orbiting another body, how satellites maneuver in space, and the determination of
niques that allow a digital voice signal to be compressed into a bit stream at 4.8 kbps the look angle to a satellite from the earth using ephemeris data that describe the orbital
Similarly, MPEG 2 (Moving Picture Coding Expert Group) and other video compressio trajectory of the satellite.
techniques allow video signals to be transmitted in full fidelity at rates less then 6.2 Mbps To achieve a stable orbit around the earth, a spacecraft must first be beyond the bulk
of the earth's atmosphere, i.e., in what is popularly called space. There are many defini-
tions of space. U.S. astronauts are awarded their "space wings" if they fly at an altitude
1.5 SUMMARY that exceeds 50 miles (-80 km); some international treaties hold that the space frontier
above a given country begins at a height of 100 miles (-160 km). Below 100 miles, per-
Satellite communication systems have become an services, because the use of high gain fixed ante mission must be sought to over-fly any portion of the country in question. On reentry, at-
essential part of the world's telecommunications in- nas at earth stations maximizes the capacity of th mospheric drag starts to be felt at a height of about 400,000 ft (-76 miles ee 122 km).
frastructure, serving billions of people with tele- satellite. Over the years~ there has been a trend awa Most satellites, for any mission of more than a few months, are placed into orbits of at
phone, data, and video services. Despite the growth from trunk communications using very large eanl least 250 miles (=400 km) above the earth. Even at this height, atmospheric drag is sig-
of fiber-optic links, which have much greater ca- station antennas toward delivery from more power nificant. As an example, the initial payload elements of the International Space Station
pacity than satellite systems and a lower cost per ful satellites to individual users using much smaller (ISS) were injected into orbit at an altitude of 397 ken when the shuttle mission left those
bit, satellite systems continue to thrive and invest- antennas. LEO and ME'O satellites are used for m
modules on 9 June 1999. By the end of 1999, the orbital height had decayed to about
ment in new systems continues. Satellite services bile communications, and navigation systems and!
have shifted away from telephony-toward ';ideo and 360 km, necessitating a maneuver to raise the orbit. Without onboard thrusters and suffi-
as the need for Geographic Information System,
data delivery, with television broadcasting directly grows with a variety of epplications. LEO earth im cient orbital maneuvering fuel, the ISS would not last more than a few years at most in
to the home emerging as one of the most powerful aging satellites have the potential to provide stron; such a low orbit. To appreciate the basic 1.aws that govern celestial mechanics, we will be-
applications. GEO satellites carry the majority of revenue streams. gin first with the fundamental Newtonian equations that describe the. motion of a body.
We will then give some coordinate axes within which the orbit of the satellite can be set
and determine the various forces on the earth satellite.
REFERENCES Newton's laws of motion can be encapsulated into four equations:

s = ut + (i)at2 (2.1a)
1. A. C. CLARKE, "Extra-terrestrial Relays," Wireless World, 5. Aviation Week and Space Technology, Aerospace SOl/ref
pp. 305-308, 1945. Book, McGraw-Hili, New York, Vol. 154, No. 1
v2 = u2 + 2at (2.1 b)
2. A. C. CLARKE, 2001: A Space Odyssey, New American pp. 161-179 and pp. 249-266, Jan. 15, 2001. v = u + at (2.lc)
Library, New York. .6. http://www.astra.lu
3. Aviation Week and Space Technology, Aerospace Source 7. www.astrolink.com
p = fIUl (2.ld)
Book, McGraw-Hili, New York, Vol. 153. No.3, January 8. www.hns.com.spaceway where s is the distance traveled from time t = 0; u is the initial velocity of the object at
17,2000.
4. D. W. E. REES, "Satellite Communications: The First time t = 0 and v the final velocity of the object at time t; a is the acceleration of the ob-
Quarter Century of Service." John Wiley & Sons, New ject; P is the force acting on the object; and m is the mass of the object. Note that the ac-
York,1989. celeration can be positive or negative, depending on the direction it is acting with respect
to the velocity vector, Of these four equations, it is the last one that helps us understand
the motion of a satellite in a stable orbit (neglecting any drag or other perturbing forces).
Put into words, Eq. (2.1d) states that the force acting on a body is equal to the mass of
18 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
.
2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS 19

the body multiplied by the resulting acceleration of the body. Alternatively, the resulting with height above the earth's surface. The acceleration, a, due to gravity at a distance r
acceleration is the ratio ofthe force acting on the body to the mass of the body. Thus, for from the center of the earth is I
a given force, the lighter the mass of the body, the higher the acceleration will be. When
in a stable orbit, there are two main forces acting on a satellite: a centrifugal force due to (2.1)
the kinetic energy of the satellite, which attempts to fling the satellite into a higher orbit, where the constant J.Lis the product of the universal gravitational constant G and the mass
and a centripetal force due to the gravitational attraction of the planet about which the of the earth ME' '
satellite is orbiting, which attempts to pull the satellite down toward the planet. If these .The product GME is called Kepler's constant and has the value 3.986004418 X
two forces are equal, the satellite will remain in a stable orbit. It will continually fall to. 10' km3/S2• The universal gravitational constant is G = 6.672 X 10-11 Nm2/kg2 or 6.672 X
ward the planet's surface as it moves forward in its orbit but, by virtue of its orbital ve- 10-20 km3/kg S2 in the older units. Since force = mass X acceleration, the centripetal
locity, it will have moved forward just far enough.to compensate for the "fall" toward the force acting on the satellite, FIN, is given by
planet and so it will remain at the same orbital height. This is why an object in a stable
orbit is sometimes described as being in "free fall." Figure 2.1 shows the two opposing FIN = m X (J.L/r2) (2.2a)
forces on a satellite in a stable orbit I. = m X (GM~/r2) (2.2b)
Force = mass X acceleration and the unit of force is a Newton, with the notation
In a similar fashion, the centrifugal acceleration is given by'
N. A Newton is the force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kg with an acceleration of
1 m1s2. The underlying units of a Newton are therefore (kg) X m1s2. In Imperial Units, a = v2/r (2.3)
one Newton = 0.2248 ft lb. The standard acceleration due to gravity at the earth's sur-
face is 9.80665 X 10-3 km/s", which is often quoted as 981 cm/s'', This value decreases which will give the centrifugal force, Four, as

Four = m X (v2/r) (2.4)

The satellite has a mass. m. If the forces on the satellite are balanced, FIN = FouT and, using Eqs. (2.2a) and (2.4),
and is traveling with velocity.
v, in the plane of the orbit
m X J.L/r2 = m X v2/r

hence the velocity v of a satellite in a circular orbit is given by

(2.5)
mv?
Four= -- If the orbit is circular, the distance traveled by a satellite in one orbit around a planet is
r
21Tr, where r is the radius of the orbit from the satellite to the center of the planet. Since
distance divided by velocity equals time to travel that distance, the period of the satellite's
orbit, T, will be
F - GMEm
IN- --;r-
T = (2~r)/v = (21Tr)/[ (J.L/r)If2]
Giving
(2.6)

Table 2.1 gives the velocity, v, and orbital period, T, for four satellite systems that
occupy typical LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits around the earth. In each case, the orbits are

TABLE 2.1 Orbital Velocity, Height, and Period

of Four Satellite Systems

Orbital height Orbital velocity Orbital period

FIGURE 2.1 Forces acting on a satellite in a stable orbit around the earth (from Fig. 3.4 of
Satellite system (km) (km/s) (h min s)
reference 1). Gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
the centers of gravity of the satellite and the planet the satellite is orbiting. in this case the Intelsat (GEO) 35,786.03 3.0747 23 56 4.1
earth. The gravitational force inward (fiN, the centripetal force) is directed toward the center of New-ICO (MEO) 10.255 4.8954 5 55 48.4
gravity of the earth. The kinetic energy of the satellite (FOUT' the centrifugal force) is directed
Skybridge (LEO) 1,469 7.1272 55 17.8
diametrically opposite to the gravitational force, Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of
Iridium (LEO) 780 7.4624 40 27.0
the velocity of the satellite. When these inward and outward forces ire balanced, the satellite
moves around the earth in a "free fall" trajectory: the satellite's orbit. For a description of the Mean earth radius is 6378.137 km and GEO radius from the center of the
units. please see the text. earth is 42.164.17km.
20 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS 2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS 21

z z
Zo
FIGURE 2.2 The initial coordina
system that could be used to de-
scribe the relationship between th FIGURE 2.3 The orbital plane coor-
Earth rotation earth and a satellite. A Cartesian dinate system. In this coordinate sys-
coordinate system with the geo- tem, the orbital plane of the satellite
graphical axes of the earth as the is used as the reference plane. The
principal axes is the simplest COOr. orthogonal axes Xo and Yo lie in the
dinate system to set up. The rota- orbital plane. The third axis, Zo, is
tional axis of the earth is about th perpendicular to the orbital plane.
axis cz, where e is the center of th Theqeoqraphical z-axis of the earth
earth and ez passes through the (which passes through the true North
geographic north pole. Axes ex, c! Pole and the center of the earth, e)
and ez are mutually orthogonal does not lie in the same direction as
axes, with ex and ey passing the Zo axis except for satellite orbits,
Y through the earth's geographic that are exacttv in the plane of the
equator. The vector r locates the geographical equator.
moving satellite with respect to th
x center of the earth.

be chosen to describe the location of the satellite such that the unit vectors in the three
circular and the average radius of the earth is taken as 6378.137 km'. A number of coo axes are constant. This coordinate system uses the plane of the satellite's orbit as the ref-
dinate systems and reference planes can be used to describe the orbit of a satellite arou erence plane. This is shown in Figure 2.3. .
a planet. Figure 2.2 illustrates one of these using a Cartesian coordinate system with t Expressing Eq. (2.10) in terms of the n~w coordinate axes Xc. Yo. and Zo gives
earth at the center and the reference planes coinciding with the equator and the polar axi
This is referred to as a geocentric coordinate system. . (d2xo) . (d2y O) f..t(x~o + YoYo)= 0 (2.11)
Xo dt2 + Yo dt2 ~ (~+ 10)3/2
With the coordinate system set up as in Figure 2.2, and with the satellite mass
located at a vector distance r from the center of the earth, the gravitational force F on t Equation (2.11) is easier to solve if it is expressed in a polar c~ordinate. syst.em rather than
satellite is given by a Cartesian coordinate system. The polar coordinate system is shown in Figure 2.4. .
With the polar coordinate system shown in Figure 2.4 and using the transformations
(2.1 (2.12a)
xo = ro cosrpo
Yo = ro sinrpo (2. 12b)
Where ME is the mass of the earth and G = 6.672 X 10-11 Nm2/kg2. But force = mass
acceleration and Eq. (2.7) can be written as Xo = "0 cos rpo - cbosin rpo (2.12c)

d'--r Yo = cbocos rpo + "0 sin rpo (2. 12d)

F=m- (2. and equating the vector components of ro and rpo in tum in Eq. (2.11) yields
dt2
From Eqs. (2.7) and (2.8) we have d2ro _ ro(drpo) = (2.13)
,. d2,.
dt2 dt
(2.
- rJf..t = dt2

Which yields' Yo
d2,. ,.
FIGURE 2.4 Polar coordinate system in the plane
(2.1
dt2 + r3f..t = 0 of the satellite'S orbit. The plane of the orbit coin-
cides with the plane of the paper. The axis Zo is
This is a second-order linear differential equation' and its solution will involve s' straight out of the paper from the center of the
undetermined constants called the orbital elements. The orbit described by these orbit earth, and is normal to the plane of the satellite's
elements can be shown to lie in a plane and to have a constant angular momentum. orbit. The satellite's position is described in terms
solution to Eq. (2.10) is difficult since the second derivative of r involves the second d of the radius from the center of the earth ro and the
rivative of the unit vector r. To remove this dependence, a different set of coordinates c angle this radius makes with the <'CO axis, <Po·
22 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS 23

and
2 5ID'EBAR ,,' . 0' ,

r (d ¢0) + 2(dro)(d¢0) = 0 (2.1

o dt2 dt
Using standard mathematical procedures,
of the satellite's orbit, ro, namely
ro = ---..:._---
p to
1 + e cos(¢o - eo)
Where eo is a constant and e is the eccentricity
given by
dt Kepler's laws were subsequently confirmed, about 50
we can develop an equation for the radi ears later, by Isaac Newton, who developed a math-.
Ymatical model for the motion of the planets, New-
e n was one of the first people to make use of differ-.
ential calculus, and with his understan diing 0 f gravity,
. much in the way English has become the international
(2.1
was able to describe the motion of planets .from a
mathematical model based on his laws of motion and
of an ellipse whose semilatus rectum PI
the concept of gravitational attraction. The work was
published in the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica in 1687. At that time, Latin was the in-
ternational language of formally 'educated people,
language of e-mail and business today, so, Newton's
Principia was written in Latin.

(2.1 3. The square of the period of revolution of the smaller body about the larger b~dy
equals a constant multiplied by the third power of the semi~ajor a.xis of the ?rbl~al
and h is magnitude of the orbital angular momentum of the satellite. That the equation ~
ellipse. That is, T2 = (41T7a3)/p. where T is the orbital penod,.a.ls t.he serrumajor
the orbit is an ellipse is Kepler's first law of planetary motion.
axis of the orbital ellipse, and p. is Kepler's constant. If the orbit IS Circular, then a
becomes distance r, defined as before, and we have Eq. (2.6).
Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion Describing the orbit of a satellite enables us to develop Kepler's second two laws.
Johannes Kepler (IS71-1630) was a German astronomer and scientist who developed h'
three laws of planetary motion by careful observations of the behavior of the planets i Describing the Orbit of a Satellite
the solar system over many years, with help from some detailed planetary observatio
by the Hungarian astronomer Tycho Brahe. Kepler's three laws are The quantity eo in Eq. (2.IS) serves to orient the ellipse with respect to the orbital plane
axes xo and Yo. Now that we know that the orbit is an ellipse, we can always choose xo
1. The orbit of any smaller body about a larger body is always an ellipse, with the cer and Yo so that eo is zero. We will assume that this has been done for the rest of this
ter of. mass of the larger body as one of the two foci. discussion. This now gives the equation of the orbit as
2. The orbit of the smaller body sweeps out equal areas in equal time (see Figure 2.5 p
r = --=---- (2.17)
o I + e cos ¢o

The path of the satellite in the orbital plane is shown in Figure 2.6. The lengths a and b
of the semimajor and semiminor axes are given by

a = p/(I - e2) (2.18)

b = a(1 - e2)1/2 (2.19)

The point in the orbit where the satellite is closest to the earth is called the per~gee
and the point where the satellite is farthest from the earth is called the apogee. The pen gee
and apogee are always exactly oppo- 'te each other. To make eo equal to zero, we ~a~e
chosen the xo axis so that both the apogee and the perigee lie along it and the xo axis IS
therefore the major axis of the ellipse. . . . .
t, The differential area swept out by the vector TO from the ongin to the satellite In
time dt is given by
FIGURE 2.5 Illustration of Kepler's second law of planetary motion. A satellite is in orb'
about, the planet earth, E, The orbit is an ellipse with a relatively high eccentricity, that is, cIA = 0.sr6( d!o )dt' = O.Shdt (2.20)
it is far from being circular. The figure shows two shaded portions of the elliptical plane i~
which the orbit moves, one is close to the earth and encloses the perigee while the other
Remembering that h is the magnitude of the orbital angular momentum of th~ satellit~,
is far from the earth and encloses the apogee. The perigee is the point of closest ap-
the radius vector of the satellite can be seen to sweep out equal areas in equal times. ThIS
proach to the earth while the apogee is the point in the orbit that is furthest from the
is Kepler's second law of planetary motion. By equating the area of th.e ellipse (1Tab~ to
earth. While close to perig'ee, the satellite moves in the orbit between times t, and t2 and
the area swept out in one orbital revolution, we can derive an expression for the orbital
. sweeps out an area denoted by A'2' While close to apogee, the satellite moves in the orb'
between times t3 and t. and sweeps out an area denoted by A34• If t, - t2 = t3 - t. then period T as
A'2 = A3 ••
(2.21)
 Yo To be perfectly geostationary, the orbit of a satellite needs to have three features:
(a) it must be exactly circular (i.e., have an eccentricity of zero); (b) it must be at the
correct altitude (i.e., have the correct period); and (c) it must be in the plane of the equa-
tor (i.e., have a zero inclination with respect to the equator). If the inclination of the
satellite is not zero and/or if the eccentricity is not zero: but the orbital period is cor-
rect, then the satellite will be in a geosynchronous orbit. The position of a geosynchro-
b nous satellite will appear to oscillate about' a mean look angle in the sky with respect
to a stationary observer on the earth's surface. The orbital period of a GEO satellite,

Apogee--o---- a _j I
I
I
C

I I
23 h 56 min 4.1 s, is one sidereal day. A sidereal day is the time between consecutive
crossings of any particular longitude on the earth by any star, other than the sun I. The
, mean solar day of 24 h is the time between any consecutive crossings of any particular
longitude by the sun, and is the time between successive sunrises (or sunsets) observed
r+-86 --+-j I at one location on earth, averaged over an entire year. Because the earth moves round
I I I
I I the sun once per 365 X days, the solar day is 1440/365.25 = 3.94 min longer than a
I I
I I sidereal day.
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
I
I
I
Locating the Satellite in the Orbit
'----,---- 8 (1 + 6) ----_-H-- 8 (1 - 6) ___]
Consider now the problem of locating the satellite in its orbit. The equation of the orbit
I I
I I
may be rewritten by combining Eqs. (2.15) and (2.18) to obtain
FIGURE 2.6 The orbit as it appears in the orbital plane. The point 0 is the center of
the earth and the point C is the center of the ellipse. The two centers do not coincide a( 1 - e2)
unless the eccentricity, e, of the ellipse is zero (i.e., the ellipse becomes a circle and ro = (2.22)
a = b). The dimensions a and b are the semi major and semiminor axes of the orbital
I + e cos 4>0
ellipse, respectively.
The angle 4>0 (see Figure 2.6) is measured from the Xo axis and is called the true' anom-
aly. [Anomaly was a measure used by astronomers to mean a planet's angular distance
from its perihelion (closest approach to the sun), measured as if viewed from the sun. The
This equation is the mathematical expression of Kepler's third law of planetary mo- term was adopted in celestial mechanics for all orbiting bodies.] Since we defined the pos-
tion: the square of the period of revolution is proportional to the cube of the semimajor itive Xo axis so that it passes through the perigee, rPo measures the angle from the perigee
axis. (Note that this is the square'of Eq. (2.6) and that in Eq. (2.6) the orbit was assumed to the instantaneous position of the satellite. The rectangular coordinates of the satellite
to be circular such that semimajor axis a = semi minor axis b = circular orbit radius are given by
from the center of the earth r.) Kepler's third law extends the result from Eq. (2.6), which
was derived for a circular orbit, to the more general case of an elliptical orbit. Equa- Xo = ro cos 4>0 (2.23)
tion (2.21) is extremely important in satellite communications systems. This equation Yo = ro sin rPo (2.24)
determines the period of the orbit of any satellite, and it is used in every GPS receiver
As noted earlier, the orbital period T is the time for the satellite to complete a rev-
in the calculation of the positions of GPS satellites. Equation (2.21) is also used to find
olution in inertial space, traveling a total of 27T radians. The average angular velocity 1]
the orbital radius of a GEO satellite, for which the period T must be made exactly equal
is thus
to the period of one revolution of the earth for the satellite to remain stationary over a
point on the equator. (2.25)
An important point to remember is that the period of revolution, T, is referenced to
inertial space, namely, to the galactic background. The orbital period is the time the or- If the orbit is an ellipse, the instantaneous angular velocity will vary with the position of
biting body takes to return to the same reference point in space with respect to the galac- the satellite around the orbit. 'If we ,enclose the elliptical orbit with a circumscribed cir-
tic background. Nearly always, the primary body wiIJ also be rotating and so the period cle of radius a (see Figure 2.7), then-an object going around the circumscribed circle with
of revolution of the satellite may be different from that perceived by an observer who is a constant angular velocity 1] would complete one revolution jn exactly the same period
standing stiIJ on the surface of the primary body. This is most obvious with a geostation- T as the satellite requires to complete one (elliptical) orbital revolution.
ary earth orbit (GEO) satellite (see Table 2.1). The orbital period of a GEO satellite is ex- Consider the geometry of the circumscribed circle as shown in Figure 2.7. Locate
actly equal to the period of rotation of the earth, 23 h 56 min 4.1 s, but, to an observer the point (indicated as A) where a vertical line drawn through the position of the satellite
on the ground, the satellite appears to have an infinite orbital period: it always stays in intersects the circumscribed circle. A line from the center of the ellipse (C) to this point
the same place in the sky. (A) makes an angle E with the Xo axis; E is called the eccentric anomaly of the satellite.
 .2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS 27
26 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS

Yo axis and (xo. Yo) of the satellite in the orbital plane. The process is as follows
1. Calculate TJ using Eq. (2.25).
2. Calculate Musing Eq. (2.30).
3. Solve Eq. (2.30) for E.
4. Find ro from E using Eq. (2.27).
5. Solve Eq. (2.22) for 4>0'
6. Use Eqs. (2.23) and (2.24) to calculate Xo and Yo.
Now we must locate the orbital plane with respect to the earth.

Locating the Satellite with Respect

to the Earth
At the end of the last section, we summarized the process for locating the satellite at
the point (xo. Yo. zo) in the rectangular coordinate system of the orbital plane. The 10- .
cation was with respect to the center of the earth. In most cases, we need to know
where' the satellite is from an observation point that is not at the center of the earth.
We will therefore develop the transformations that permit the satellite to be located
from a point on the rotating surface of the earth. We will begin with a geocentric equa-
Circumscribed Circle
torial coordinate system as shown in Figure 2.8. The rotational axis of the earth is the
FIGURE 2.7 The circumscribed circle and the eccentric anomaly E. Point 0 is the center of
Zi axis, which is through the geographic North Pole. The X, axis is from the center of
the earth and point C is both the center of the orbital ellipse and the center of the circum-
scribed circle. The satellite location in the orbital plane coordinate system is specified by, (xo,
the earth toward a fixed location in space called the first point of Aries (see Figure 2.8).
Yo). A vertical lirle through the satellite intersects the circumscribed circle at point A. The This coordinate system moves through space; it translates as the earth moves in its or-
eccentric anomaly E is the angle from the Xo axis to the line joining C and A. bit around the sun, but it does not rotate as the earth rotates. The Xi direction is always
the same. whatever the earth's position around the sun and is in the direction of the
first point of Aries. The (Xi. y) plane contains the earth's equator and is called the
equatorial plane.
It is related to the radius ro by
Angular distance measured eastward in the equatorial plane from the Xi axis is
ro = a(1 - e cosE) (2.26
called right ascension and given the symbol RA. The two points at which the orbit
Thus
a - ro = ae cos E (2.27
z,
We can also develop an expression that relates eccentric anomaly E to the averag
angular velocity TJ, which yields
1/ dt = (I - e cosE) dE (2.28 FIGURE 2.8 The geocentric'
equatorial system. This geocentric
Let tp be the time of perigee. This is simultaneously the time of closest approach to i system differs from that shown in
earth; the time when the satellite is crossing the Xo axis; and the time when E is zero. Figure 2.1 only in that the Xi axis
we integrate both sides of Eq. (2.28). we obtain points to the first point of Aries.
The first point of Aries is the dl-
1/(t - tp) = E - e sinE (2.2~
rection of a line from the center
of the earth through the center of
The left side of Eq. (2.29) is called the mean anomaly, M. Thus
the sun at the vernal equinox
M = TJ(t - tp) = E - e sinE (2.3 (about March 21 in the Northern
Hemisphere). the instant when
The mean anomaly M is the arc length (in radians) that the satellite would have travers the subsolar point crosses the
since the perigee passage if it were moving on the circumscribed circle at the mean at Yi
equator from south to north. In
gular velocity TJ. . the above system, an object may
If we know the time of perigee, tp• the eccentricity, e, and the length of the se be located by its right ascension
major axis. a, we now have the necessary equations to determine the coordinates (ro. cfi Xi RA a,nd its declination 8.
28 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS 2.1 ORBITAL MECHANICS 29

penetrates the equatorial plane are called nodes; the satellite moves upward through
the equatorial plane at the ascending node and downward through the equatorial
plane at the descending node, given the conventional picture of the earth, with north
at the top, which is in the direction of the positive z axis for the earth centered coor.
dinate set. Remember that in space there is no up or down; that is a concept we are
familiar with because of gravity at the earth's surface. For a weightless body in space,
such as an orbiting spacecraft, up and down have no meaning unless they are defined
with respect to a reference point. The right ascension of the ascending node is called
O. The angle that the orbital plane makes with the equatorial plane (the planes inter-
sect at the line joining the nodes) is called the inclination, i. Figure 2.9 illustrates these
quantities.
The'variables 0 and i together locate the orbital plane with respect to the equato-
rial plane. To locate the orbital coordinate system with respect to the equatorial coordi-
nate system we need w, the argument of perigee west. This is the angle measured along
the orbit from the ascending node to the perigee.
Standard time for space operations and most other scientific and engineering pur-
poses is universal time (UT), also known as zulu time (z). This is essentially the mean
solar time at the Greenwich Observatory near London, England. Universal time is meas-
ured in hours, minutes, and seconds or in fractions of a day. It is 5 h later than Eastern
Standard Time, so that 07:00 EST is 12:00:00 hUT. The civil or calendar day begins
at 00:00:00 hours UT, frequently written as 0 h. This is, of course, midnight (24:00:00)
on the previous day. Astronomers employ a second dating system involving Julian days
and Julian dates. Julian days start at noon UT in a counting system whereby noon on
December 31,1899, was the beginning of Julian day 2415020, usually written 2415020.
These are extensively tabulated in reference 2 and additional information is in reference
14. As an example, noon on December 31, 2000, the eve of the twenty-first century, is
the start of Julian day 245 1909. Julian dates can be used to indicate time by append-
ing a decimal fraction; 00:00:00 h UT on January 1, 2001-zero hour, minute, and
second for the third millenium A.D.--;-is given by Julian date 245 1909.5. To find the
exact position of an orbiting satellite at a given instant in time requires knowledge of
the orbital elements.
Orbital Elements
To specify the absolute (i.e., the inertial) coordinates of a satellite at time t, we need to
know six quantities. (This was evident earlier when we determined that a satellite's equa-
tion of motion was a second order vector linear differential equation.) These quantities
are called the orbital elements. More than six quantities can be used to describe a unique
orbital path and there is some arbitrariness in exactly which six quantities are used. We
have chosen to adopt a set that is commonly used in satellite communications: eccentric-
ity (e), semimajor axis (a), time of perigee (tp), right ascension of ascending node (0),
inclination (i), and argument of perigee (w). Frequently, the mean anomaly (M) at a given
time is substituted for tp'
EXAMPLE 2.1.1 Geostationary Satellite Orbit Radius
The earth rotates once per sidereal day of 23 h 56 min 4.09 s. Use Eq. (2.21) to show that the radius
of the GEO is 42,164.17 km as given in Table 2.1.
Answer Equation (2.21) gives the square of the orbital period in seconds
T2 = (47T2aJ)/ J.L
Rearranging the equation, the orbital radius a is given by
For one sidereal day, T = 86,164.09 s. Hence

a3 = (86,164.lf X 3.986004418 X 105/(47T2) = 7.496020251 X 101)krrr'

Zj a = 42,164.17 km

This is the orbital radius for a geostationary satellite, as given in Table 2.1.
•
EXAMPLE 2.1.2 Low Earth Orbit
The Space Shuttle is an example of a low earth orbit satellite. Sometimes, it orbits at an altitude of
250 km above the earth's surface, where there is still a finite number of molecules from the at-
mosphere. The mean earth's radius is approximately 6378.14 km. Using these figures, calculate the
period of the shuttle orbit when the altitude is 250 km and the orbit is circular. Find also the linear
velocity of the shuttle along its orbit.

Answer The radius of the 250-km altitude Space Shuttle orbit is (re + h) = 6378.14 + 250.0 =
6628.14 km
From Eq. 2.21, the period of the orbit is T where
XI

FIGURE 2.9 Locating the orbit in the geocentric equatorial system. The satellite penetrates T2 = (47T2aJ)/1L = 47T2 X (6628.14)3/3.986004418 X lOS S2
the equatorial plane (while moving in the positive z direction) at the ascending node. The = 2.88401145 X 107 S2
right ascension of the ascending node is n and the inclination i is the angle between the
Hence the period of the orbit is
equatorlal plane and the orbital plane. Angle w, measured in the orbital plane, locates the
perigee with respect to the equatorial plane. T = 5370.30 s = 89 min 30.3 s.
30 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS 2.2 LOOK ANGLE DETERMINAnON 31

This orbit period is about as small as possible. At a lower altitude, friction with the earth's atrnos. IDE BAR' .. I , " -". ~",.; . . -: . "

phere will quickly slow the Shuttle down and it will return to earth. Thus, all spacecraft in stable S
(, ,'" , .'- ,

earth orbit have orbital periods exceeding 89 min 30 s.

Frequencies and orbital slots for new satellites are
The circumference of the orbit is 27Ta = 41,645.83 km.
registered with the International Frequency Regis-
Hence the velocity of the Shuttle in orbit is
tration Board (IFRB), part of the ITU located in
27Ta/T = 41,645.83/5370.13 = 7.755 km/s Geneva. The initial application by an organizaticn
or company that wants' to orbit a new satellite is
, Alternatively, you could use Eq. (2.5): V = (J.L/r)I/2. The term J.L = 3.986004418 X 10' km~/s2and
made to the national body that controls the alloca-
the term r = (6378.14 + 250.0) km, yielding v = 7.755 kmls. tion and use of radio frequencies=-the FCC in the
Note: If J.L and r had been quoted in units of m~/s2 and m, respectively, the answer would have been
United States, for example-which must first ap-
in meters/second. Be sure to keep the units the same during a calculation procedure. prove the application and then forward it to the
A velocity of about 7.8 kmls is a typical velocityfor a low earth orbit satellite. As the alti.
IFRB. The. first organization to file with the IFRB
tude of a satellite increases, its velocity becomes smaller. ' •
for a particular service is deemed to have protection
from newcomers. Any other organization filing to
carry the same service at, or close to, that orbital 10-
cation (within 2°) must coordinate their use of the
frequency bands with the first organization. The first
user may cause interference into subsequent filer's
satellite systems, since they were the first to be
awarded the orbital slot and frequencies, but the later
filers' satellites must not cause interference with the
first user's system.

EXAMPLE 2.1.3 Elliptical orbit

A satellite is in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 1000 km and an apogee of 4000 km. Using a
not surprisingly, drew its reference longitude through Paris, France. Since the British
mean earth radius of 6378.14 km, find the period of the orbit in hours, minutes, and seconds, and
Admiralty chose to give away their maps and the French decided to charge a fee for
the eccentricity of the orbit.
theirs, it was not surprising that the use of Greenwich as the zero reference longitude
Answer The major axis of the elliptical orbit is a straight line between the apogee and perigee, became dominant within a few years. [It was the start of .com market dominance through
as ,seen in Figure 2.7. Hence, for a semimajor axis length a, earth radius re, perigee height hp, and giveaways three centuries before E-cornmerce!] Geometry was a much older science
apogee height h" than navigation and so 90° per quadrant on the map was an obvious selection to make.
Thus, there are 360° of longitude (measured from 0° at the Greenwich Meridian, the
2a = Zr, + hp + h, = 2 X 6378.14 + 1000.0 + 4000.0 = 17,756.28 km
line drawn frorrr the North Pole to the South Pole through Greenwich, England) and
, Thus the semimajor axis of the orbit has a length a = 8878.14 km. Using this value of a in Eq..(2.21) ±90° of latitude, plus being measured north of the equator and minus south of the equa-
gives an orbital period T seconds where tor. Latitude 90,° N (or +90°) is the North Pole and latitude 90° S (or -90°) is the South
T2 = (47T2aJ)/M = 47T2 X (8878.,07W3.986004418 X 105 S2
Pole. When Gr:O satellite systems are registered in Geneva, their (subsatellite) location
7 over the equator is given in degrees east to avoid confusion. Thus, the INTELSAT pri-
= 6.930872802 X 10 S2
mary location in the Indian Ocean is registered at 60° E and the primary location in the
T = 8325,1864 s = 138 min 45.19 s = 2 h 18 min 45.19 s
Atlantic Ocean is at 335.5° E (not 24.5° W). Earth stations that communicate with satel-
The eccentricity of the orbit Js given by e. which can be found from Eq. (2.27) by consider- lites are described in terms of their geographic latitude and longijude when developing
ing the instant at which the satellite is at perigee. Referring to Figure 2.7, when the satellite is at the pointing coordinates that the earth station must use to track the apparent motion of
perigee, the eccentric anomaly E '= 0 and ro = re + hp' From Eq. (2.27), at perigee th~e.
ro = a(1 - e cosE) and cosE = I 'The coordinates to which an earth station antenna must be pointed to communi-
cate with a satellite are called the look angles~"Ifhese are most commonly expressed
Hence as~azimuth (Az) and elevation (El), although other pairs exist. For example, right
ascension and declination are standard for radio astronomy antennas. Azimuth is
re + hp = a(l - e)
measured eastward (clockwise) from geographic north to the projection of the satellite
e = I- (re + hp)/a = 1 - 7,378.14/887&.14 = 0.169 • path on a (locally) horizontal plane at the earth station. Elevation is the angle meas-
ured upward from the local horizontal plane at the earth station to the satellite path.
Figure 2.10 illustrates these look angles. In all look angle determinations, the precise
location of the satellite is critical.' A key location in many instances is the subsatellite
2.2 LOOK ANGLE DETERMINATION point. .

Navigation around the earth's oceans became more precise when the surface of the globe
was divided up into a gridlike structure of orthogonal lines: latitude and longitude. Lat-
itude is the angular distance, measured in degrees, north or south of the equator and
longitude is the angular distance, measured in degrees, from a given reference
longitudinal line. At the time that this grid reference became popular, there were two
major seafaring nations vying for dominance/England and France. England drew its ref-
erence zero longitude through Greenwich, a town close to London, England, and France,
The Subsatellite Point
~ The subsatellite point is the location on the surface of.the earth that lies directly between
the satellite and the center of the earth} It is the nadir pointing direction from the satel-
lite and, for a satellite in an equatorial orbit, it will always be located on the equator. Since
geostationary satellites are in equatorial orbits and are designed to stay "stationary" over
 2.2 LOOK ANGLE DETERMINATION .a.a
32 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS

rLocal vertical

~irection

Az
Projection of
path onto local
horizontal plane

East
FIGURE 2.11 Zenith and nadir pointing directions. The line joining the satellite and the
FIGURE 2.10 The definition of elevation (Eli and azimuth (AzI. The elevation angle is
center of the earth. C, passes through the surface of the earth at point Sub, the subsatellite
measured upward from the local horizontal at the earth station and the azimuth angle is
point. The satellite is directly overhead at this point and so an observer at the subsatellite
measured from true north in an eastward direction to the projection of the satellite path 0
point would see the satellite at zenith (i.e., at an elev.ation angle of 90 ).trhe pointing direc-
onto the local horizontal plane.
tion from the satellite to the subsatellite point is the nadir direction from the satellitallf the
beam from the satelllte antenna is to be pointed at a location on the earth that is not at the
subsatellite point, the pointing direction is defined by the angle away from nadir. In general,
the earth, it is usual to give their orbital location in terms of their subsatellite point. A.
two off-nadir angles are given: the number of degrees north (or south) from nadir; and the
noted in the example given earlier, the Intelsat primary satellite in the Atlantic Oce
number of degrees east (or west) from nadir. East, west. north, and south directions are
Region (AOR) is at 335.5° E longitude. Operators of international geostationary satelln
those defined bv- the geography of the earth.
systems that have satellites in all three ocean regions (Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific) tend
to use longitude east to describe the subsatellite points to avoid confusion between usin!
both east and west longitude descriptors. For U.S. geostationary satellite operators, all 0,
the satellites are located west of the Greenwich meridian and so it has become accept
practice for regional systems o,verthe United States to describe their geostationary satellie
locations in terms of degrees W.
To an observer of a satellite standing at the subsatellite point, the satellite will a
pear to be directly overhead, in the zenith direction from. the observing location. Th
zenith and nadir paths are therefore. in opposite directions along the same path (s~
Figure 2.11). Designers of satellite antennas reference the pointing direction of the satel
lite's antenna beams to the nadir direction. The communications coverage region on th
earth from a satellite is defined .by angles mea~ured from nadir at the satellite to th~
edges of the coverage. Earth station antenna designers, however, do not reference the~
pointing direction to zenith. As noted earlier, they use the local horizontal plane at tht
earth station to define elevation angle and geographical compass points to define az·
imuth angle, thus giving the two look angles for the earth station antenna toward FIGURE 2.12 TlJe geometry
satellite (Az, E[). of elevation angle calculation.
The plane of the paper is the
plane defined by the center of
Elevation Angle Calculation the earth. the satellite. and the
earth station. The central angle
Figure 2.12 shows the geometry of the elevation angle calculation. In Figure 2.12, I is 'Y. The elevation angle EI is
is the vector from the center of the earth to the satellite; r. is the vector from the ce measured upward from the
ter of the earth to the earth station; and d is the vector from the earth station to local horizontal at the earth
satellite. These three vectors lie in the same plane and form a triangle. The cent station.
angle l' measured between r. and r. is the angle between the earth station and
34 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
2.2 LOOK ANGLE DETERMINATION 35

satellite, and I/! is the angle (within the triangle) measured from r. to d. Defined so that , ..;, ~. I • 't. J, ~ 4 ,. • ,
it is nonnegative, I' is related to the earth station north latitude Le (i.e., L, is the nun, SIDEBAR'-:', .: . ,',:, ' e , - ;'. • -;\ •

ber of degrees in latitude that the earth station is north from the equator) and west Ion.
gitude Ie (i.e., l, is the number of degrees in longitude that the earth station is west A popular .suite of softw:rre employed by many the launch vehicle. Hughes used two lunar flybys to
from the Greenwich meridian) and the subsatellite point at north latitude L and launch serVIce contractors IS that developed by An- provide the necessary additional velocity to circu-
longitude I by '. west alytical Graphics: the Satellite Tool Kir. The core larize the orbit at geostationary altitude, A number
s program in early 200 I, STK 4.0, and the subs~quent of organizations offer web sites that provide orbital
cos (I') = cos (Le) cos (Ls) cos (Is - Ie) + sin (Le) sin (Ls) (2.31) subseries, was ~sed by Hughes t,o res~ue ASIa~a~3 plots in a three-dimensional graphical format with
when that satellite was stranded In a highly elllpti- rapid updates for a variety of satellites (e.g., the
The law of cosines allows us to relate the magnitudes of the vectors joining the cen, cal orbit following the failure of an upper stage in NASA site'') ,
~rclthee~~the~~ll~,~dthee~hu~o~Thw ' ~~~~_'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

d = r,[ 1 + (;.y - 2(~)COS('Y) r2

(2.32) dynamics and intercept solutions (see reference
packages available in early 2001).
13 for a brief review of 10 software

Since the local horizontal plane at the earth station is perpendicular to re, the elevation
angle EI is related to the central angle I/! by Specialization to Geostationary Satellites
EI = I/! - 90° (2.33) For most geostationary satellites, the subsatellite point is on the equator at longitude Is,
and the latitude L, is O. The geosynchronous radius rs is 42,164.17 krn'. Since L, is zero,
By the law of sines we have
Eq. (2.31) simplifies to

r, d cos ( 1') = cbs (Le) cos (Is - Ie) (2.%)

(2.34)
sin (I/!) = sineI')
Substituting rs = 42,164.17 km and re = 6,378.137 km in Eqs. (2.32) and (2.35) gives
Combining the last three equations yields the following expressions for the distance d from the earth station to the satellite and the

cos ()EI
r, sin (I' )
= -~,_:___:_
.
elevation angle EI at the earth station

d = 42, l64.17[ 1.02288235 - 0.30253825 cos (I') ]'/2 km (2.37)

d
sine 1')
sin (I') cos(EI) = ~----____:...:....:_----- (2.38)
(2.35) [1.02288235 - 0.30253825 cos (I') ]'/2
For a geostationary satellite with: an orbital radius of 42,164.17 km and a mean earth ra-
dius of 6378.137 krn, the ratio rJre = 6.6107345 giving
Equations (2.35) and (2,31) permit the elevation angle El to be calculated from knowl-
edge of the subsatellite point and the earth station coordinates, the orbital radius rs, and EI = tan-'[(6.6107345 - cos yj/sinv] - I' (2.39)
the earth's radius r.: An accurate value for the average earth radius is 6378.137 km ' but
To find the azimuth angle, an intermediate angle a must first be' found. The inter-
a common value used in approximate determinations is 6370 km.
mediate angle a permits the correct 90° quadrant to be found for the azimuth since the
azimuthal angle can lie anywhere between 0° (true north) and clockwise through 360°
(back to true north again). The intermediate angle is found from
Azimuth Angle Calculation
Bec~u~e the earth station, the center of the earth, the satellite, and the subsatellite point _ _,[tanl(ls - le)l]
a-tan '(L) (2.40)
all he In the same plane, the 'azimuth angle Az from the earth station to the satellite is the sm e

same as the azimuth from the earth station to the subsatellite point. This is more difficult Having found the intermediate angle a, the azimuth look angle Az can be found from:
to compute than the elevation angle because the exact geometry involved depends on
, whether the subsatellite point is east or west of the earth station, and in which of the hemi· Case 1: Earth station in the Northern Hemisphere with
spheres the earth station and the subsatellite point are located. The problem simplifies (a) Satellite to the SE of the earth station: Az = 180° - a (2.41a)
somewhat for geosynchronous satellites, which will be treated in the next section. For the (b) Satellite to the SW of the earth station: Az = 180° + a (2.4Ib)
general case, in particular for constellations of LEO satellites, the tedium of calculating Case 2: Earth station in the Southern Hemisphere with
, the individual look angles on a second-by-second basis has been considerably eased by a
(c) Satellite to the NE of the earth station: Az = a (2.41c)
range of commercial software packages that exist for predicting a variety of orbital
(d) Satellite to the NW of the earth station: Az = 360° - a (2.41d)
36 C!fAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS 2.2 LOOK ANGLE DETERMINATION 37

Step 1: Find the central angle y

cos('Y) = cos(L.)cos(/, - I.)

= cos (52.0) cos (66.0) = 0.2504

yielding 'Y = 75.4981 0

The central angle 'Yis less than 81.3 so the satellite is visible from the earth station.
0

Step 2: Find the elevation angle EI

EI = tan-I[(6.6107345 - cos'Y)/sin'Y] - 'Y

= tan-I[(6.6107345 - 0.2504)/sin(75.4981)] - 75.4981
= 5.847 0

Step 3: Find the intermediate angle a

Subsalellile -I-~ ____
point a = tan-l[tanl(/, - le)l]
sin (L.)
Earth
= tan-I[(tan(66.0 - 0))/sin(52.0)]
= 70.667 0

Step 4: Find the azimuth angle

The earth station is in the Northern Hemisphere and the satellite is to the southeast of the
FIGURE 2.13 The geometry of the earth station. From Eq. (2.41a), this gives '
visibility calculation. The satellite is said to
be visible from the earth station if the Az = 1800 - a = 180 - 70.667 = 109.333°(c1ockwise from true north) •
elevation angle EI is positive. This requires
that the orbital radius r. be greater than the
Note that, in the example above, the elevation aIlgle is relatively low (5.85°).
ratio ,./cos(yl where '. is the radius of the
earth and y is the central angle. Refractive effects in the atmosphere will cause the mean ray path to the satellite to bend
in the elevation plane (making the satellite appear to be higher in the sky than it actually
is) and to cause the amplitude of the signal to fluctuate with time. These aspects are dis-
Visibility Test cussed more fully in the propagation effects chapter. While it is unusual to operate to a
satellite below established elevation angle minima (typically 5° at C band, !00 at Ku band,
For a satellite to be visible from art earth station, its elevation angle EI must be above and in most cases, 20° at Ka band and above), many times it is not possible to do this.
some minimum value, which is at least 0°. A positive or zero elevation angle requires thai Such cases exist for high latitude regions and for satellites attempting to reach extreme
(see Figure 2.13) east and west coverages from their given geostationary equatorial location. To establish
whether a particular satellite location can provide service into a given region, a simple
r >--- '.
, - cos(y)
- (2.42) visibility test can be carried out, as shown earlier in Eqs. (2.42) and. (2.43).
A number of geosynchronous orbit satellites have inclinations that are much larger
This means that the maximum central angular separation between the earth station and than the nominal 0.05° inclination maximum for current geosynchronous satellites. (In
the sub satellite point is limited by general, a geosynchronous satellite with an inclination of <0.1 ° may be considered to
be geostationary.) In extreme cases, the inclination can be several degrees, particularly
. y:S COS-I{~) (2.43) if the orbit maneuvering fuel of the satellite is almost exhausted and the satellite's
position in the nominal location is only controlled in longitude and not in inclination.
For a nominal geostationary orbit, the last equation reduces to y :S 81.3° for the satellite This happens with most geostationary communications satellites toward the end of their
to be visible. operational lifetime since the reliability of the payload, or a large part of the payload,
generally exceeds that of the lifetime of the maneuvering fuel. Those satellites that can
EXAMPLE 2.2.1 Geostationary Satellite Look Angles no longer be maintained in a fully geostationary orbit, but are still used for communi-
cations services, are referred to as inclined orbit satellites. While they now need to have
An earth station situated in the Docklands of London, England, needs to calculate the look ang tracking antennas at the earth terminals once the inclination becomes too large to allow
19 a geostationary ·satellite in the Indian Ocean operated by Intelsat. The details of the earth stati
the satellite to remain within the I-dB beamwidth of the earth station antennas, sub-
site and the satellite are as follows: i. stantial additional revenue can be earned beyond the .normal lifetime of the satellite.
Earth station latitude and longitude are 52.0 N and 0
0 0
: Those satellites that eventually reach significantly inclined orbits can also be used to
Satellite longitude (subsatellite point) is 66.0 E..
0
. conimunicate to parts of the high latitude regions thai were once beyond reach, but only
 38 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
for a limited part of the day. The exceptional reliability of electronic components'
space, o~ce they have survived the launch and deployment sequences, has led spac~
cra~t de~lgners to manufacture satellites with two end-of-life criteria. These are: end
design life (EODL), ,,:hic~ refers to the lif~time expectancy of the payload componen
~nd en.d of maneuv~~ng lIfe. (E?ML), which refers to the spacecraft bus capabilin,
In particular the anticipated lifetime of-the spacecraft with full maneuver capabilities'
longitude and inclination.
. . Current spacecraft are d.esigned with fuel tanks that have a capacity that. usual!
slg.mficantly exceeds the requirement for EODL. Once the final mass of the spacecr
(WIthout fuel) is known, a decision can be made as to how much additional fuel to I
so that the economics of the launch and the anticipated additional return on investrn,
can be balanced. ~aving. ~dditional ~uel on board the spacecraft can be 'advaritage~u
for many reasons, In addition to adding on-orbit lifetime. In many cases, satellites a
~oved to n~w locations duri~g their operational lifetime. Examples for this are ope
ing up service. at a. new 10.catlOn WIth an older satellite or replacing a satellite that h
had catastrophic failure WIth a satellite from a location that has fewer customers. Eac
~aneuver, howev~r, consumes. fuel. A rule of thumb is that any change in orbital loci
non .for a geostat.lO~ary satellite reduces the maneuvering lifetime by about I mom
~OVIng the ~atellIte s location by 1° in longitude takes as much additional fuel as rnov
mg the 10c~tlOn by 180°: both changes require an acceleration bum, a drift phase, an
a deceleration bu~. The 180° location change will clearly take longer, since the dri
rates are .the same In bot~ cases. Another use for additional fuel is to allow for orbit
perturbations at any location. . a
2.3 ORBITAL PERTURBATIONS
The orb!tal equations developed in Section 2.1 modeled the earth and the satellite as point
m~ss~~ In~uenced only.by ?ravitati.onal attraction. Under these ideal conditions, a "Kep-
l~nan orbit r~sults, which IS an ellipse whose properties are constant with time. In prac
tree, the ~atellIt~ a~d the earth respond to many other influences including asymmetry 01
the.e~h s gravitational field, the gravitational fields of the sun and the moon, and solar
radiation pre~sure. ~or low earth orbit satellites, atmospheric drag can also beimportant
~ll of.the~e. interfering forces cause the true orbit to be different from a simple Kepler.
Ian ellipse; If u?checked, they would cause the subsatellite Eoint of a nominally geosyn
chronous satellite to move with time. -..
. Historic.ally, mUCh. attention has been given to techniques for incorporating addi
tlon~l perturbing f?rce~ into orbit descriptions. The approach normally adopted for com.
.mumc~tlOns s.atellItes IS first to denve an osculating orbit for some instant in time (the
~eplen~n orbl~ the spacecraft would follow if all perturbing forces were removed at that
tJm~) WIth orbital elements (a, e, tp' n, i, w). The perturbations are assumed to cause the
orbital elements to v~ry wit~ time and the orbit and satellite location at any' instant an
take~ fro~ the osculatmg orbit calculated with orbital elements corresponding to that time.
To visualize the process, assume that the osculating orbital elements at time t. are (a e
t n
p'
i ) Th
0'. 0, Wo .
h h . 0
en assume t at t e orbital elements vary linearly with time at constant
0, ~
-rates given by .(daj ": de( dt, etc.). The satellite's position at any time t, is then calculated
from a Keplerian orbit WIth elements
da de
ao + dt (t1 - to),eo + dt (t1 - to), etc.
2.3 ORBITAL PERTURBA1l0NS 39
This approach is particularly useful in practice because it permits the use of either
theoretlcally calculated derivatives or empirical values based on satellite observations.
As the perturbed orbit is not an ellipse, some care must be taken in defining the or-
bital period. Since the satellite does not return to the same point in space once per revo-
lution, the quantity most frequently specified is the sa-called anomalistic period: the
elapsed time between successive perigee passages. In addition to the orbit not being a per-
fect Keplerian ellipse, there will be other influences that will cause the apparent position
of a geostationary satellite to change with time. These can be viewed as those causing
mainly longitudinal changes and those that principally affect the orbital inclination.
Longitudinal Changes:
Effects of the Earth's Oblateness
..
The earth is neither a perfect sphere nor a perfect ellipse; it can be better described as a
triaxial ellipsoid '. The earth is flattened at the poles; the equatorial diameter is about 20 km
more than the average polar diameter. The equatorial radius is not constant, although the
noncircularity is small: the radius does not vary by more than about 100 m around' the equa-
tor'. In addition to these nonregular features of the earth, there are regions where the
average density of the earth appears to be higher. These are referred to as regions of mass
concentration or Mascons. The nonsphericity of the earth, the noncircularity of the equa-
torial radius, and the Mascons lead to a nonuniform gravitational field around the earth.
The force on an orbiting satellite will therefore vary with position.
For low earth orbit satellite, the rapid change in position of the satellite with re-
spect to the earth's surface will lead to an averaging out of the perturbing forces in line.
with the orbital velocity vector. The same is not true for a geostationary (or geosynchro-
nous) satellite. A geostationary satellite is weightless when in orbit. The smallest force on
the satellite will cause it to accelerate and then drift away from its nominal location. The
satellite is required to maintain a constant longitudinal position over the equator, but there
will generally be an additional force toward the nearest equatorial bulge in either an east-
ward or a westward direction along the orbit plane. Since this will rarely be in line with
the main gravitational force toward the earth's center, there will be a resultant component
of force acting in the same direction as the satellite's velocity vector or against it, depending
on the precise position of the satellite in the GEO orbit. This will lead to a resultant ac-
celeration or deceleration component that varies with longitudinal location of the satellite.
Due to the position of the Mascons and equatorial bulges, there are four equilib-
rium points in the geostationary orbit: two of them stable and two unstable. The stable
points are analogous to the bottom of a valley, and the unstable points to the top of a hill.
If a ball is perched on top of a hill, a small push will cause it to roll down the slope into
a valley, where it will roll backwards and forwards until it gradually comes to a final stop
at the lowest point. The satellite at an unstable orbital location is at the top of a gravity
hill. Given a small force, it will drift down the gravity slope into the gravity well (valley)
and finally stay there, at the stable position. The stable points are at about 75° E and
252° E and the unstable points are at around 162° E and 348° E'. If a satellite is perturbed
slightly from one of the stable points, it will tend to drift back to the stable point without
any thruster firings required. A satellite that is perturbed slightly from one of the unstable
points will immediately begin to accelerate its drift toward the nearer stable point and,
once it reaches this point, it will oscillate in longitudinal position about this point until
(centuries later) it stabilizes at that point. These stable points are sometimes called the
graveyard geosynchronous orbit locations (not to be confused with the graveyard orbit for
a geosynchronous satellite. which is the orbit to which the satellite is raised once the
40 CHAPTER 2 ORBrrAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
satellite ceases to be useful). Note that, due to the nonsphericity of the earth, etc., the s.
ble points are neither exactly 180° apart, nor are the stable and unstable points precisel
90° apart.
Inclination Changes:
Effects of the Sun and the Moon
The plane of the earth's orbit around the sun-the ecliptic-is at an inclination of 7.30 t
the equatorial plane of the sun (Figure 2.14). The earth is titled about 23° away from
normal to theecliptic, The moon circles the earth with an inclination of around 5° to
equatorial plane of the earth. Due to the fact that the various planes-the sun's equat,
the ecliptic, the earth's equator (a plane normal.to the earth's rotational axis), and
moon's orbital plane around the earth-are all different, a satellite in orbit around the eant
will be subjected to a variety of out-of-plane forces. That is, there will generally be an
acceleration force that is not in the plane of the satellite's orbit, and this will tend to
to change the inclination of the satellite's orbit from its initial inclination. Under th
conditions, the orbit will precess and its inclination will change.
The mass of the sun is significantly larger than that of the moon but the moon is co
siderably closer to the earth than the sun (see Table 2.2). For this reason, the accelerati
force induced by the moon on a geostationary satellite is about twice as large as that of
sun. The net effect of the acceleration forces induced by the moon and the sun on
Moon
FIGURE 2.14 Relationship between the orbital planes of the sun, moon, and earth. The
plane of the earth's orbit around the sun is the ecliptic. The geostationary orbit plane (the'
earth's equatorial plane) is about 23° out of the ecliptic, and leads to maximum out-of-
geostationary-orbit·plane forces at the solstice periods (approximately June 21 and
December 21). The orbit of the moon is inclined about 5° to the earth's equatorial plane. The
moon revolves around the ,earth in 27.3 days, the earth (and the geostationary satellite)
rotates once about 24 h, and the earth revolves around the sun every 365.25 days. In
addition, the sun-which has a greater girth at the equator than at the poles-has its equate
inclined about 7.3° to the ecliptic. All of these various angular differences and orbital periods
lead to conditions where all of the out-of-plane gravitational forces are in one direction with
.. respect to the equatorial (geostationary orbital) plane at a given time as well as to conditions
where the various gravitational out-of-plane forces partially cancel each other out. The
precessional forces that cause the inclination of the geostationary satellite's orbit to move
away from the equatorial plane therefore vary with time.
2.3 ORBITAl PERTURBATIONS 41
TABLE 2.2 Comparative Data for the Sun, Moon, and Earth
Mean radius Mass Mean orbit radius Spin period
Sun 696,000 km 333,432 units 30,000 light years 25.04 earth days
Moon 3,476 km 0.012 units 384,500 km 27.3 earth days
Earth 6,378.14 km 1.0 units 149,597,870 km 1 earth day
The orbit radius refers to the center of the home galaxy (Milky Way) for the sun, center
of earth for the moon, and center of the sun for the earth, respectively.
geostationary satellite is to change the plane of the orbit at an initial average rate of change
of 0.85°/year from the equatorial plane'.
When both the sun and moon are acting on the same side of the satellite's orbit, the
rate of change of the plane of the geostationary satellite's orbit will be higher than aver-
age. When they are on opposite sides of the orbit, the rate of change of the plane of the
satellite's orbit will be less than average. Examples of maximum years are 1988 and 2006
(0.94°/year) and examples of minimum years are 1997 and 2015 (0.7So/year)'. These rates
of change are neither constant with time nor with inclination. They are at a maximum
when the inclination is zero and they are zero when the inclination is 14.67°. From an ini-
tial zero inclination, the plane of the geostationary orbit will change to a maximum in-
clination of 14.67° over 26,6 years; The acceleration forces will then change direction at
this maximum inclination and the orbit inclination will move back to zero in another 26.6
years and out to -14.67° over a further 26.6 years, and so on.
In some cases, to increase the orbital maneuver lifetime of a satellite for a given
fuel load, mission planners deliberately place a satellite planned for geostationary orbit
into an initial orbit with an inclination that is substantially larger than the nominal 0.05°
for a geostationary satellite. The launch is specifically timed, however, so as to set up the
necessary precessional forces that will automatically reduce the inclination "error" to close
to zero over the required period without the use of any thruster firings on the spacecraft.
This will increase the maneuvering lifetime of the satellite at the expense of requiring
greater tracking by the larger earth terminals accessing the satellite for the first year or so
of the satellite's operational life.
Under normal operations, ground controllers command spacecraft maneuvers to
correct for both the in-plane changes (longitudinal drifts) and out-of-plane changes (in-
clination changes) of a satellite so that it remains in the correct orbit. For a geostationary
satellite, this means that the inclination, ellipticity, and longitudinal position are controlled
so that the satellite appears to stay within a "box" in the sky that is bounded by ±0.05°
in latitude and longitude over the subsatellite point. Some maneuvers are designed to cor-
rect for both inclination and longitude drifts simultaneously in the one bum of the ma-
neuvering rockets -on the satellite. In others, the two maneuvers are kept separate: one
bum will correct for ellipticity and longitude drift; another will correct for inclination
changes. The latter situation of separated maneuvers is becoming more cpmmon for two
reasons. The first is due to the much larger velocity increment needed to change the plane
of an orbit (the so-called north-south maneuver) as compared with the longitude/ellipticity
of an orbit (the so-called east-west maneuver). The difference in energy requirement is -
about 10: 1. By alternately correcting for inclination changes and in-plane changes, the
attitude of the satellite can be held constant and different sets of thrusters exercised for
the required maneuver.
The second reason is the increasing use of two completely different types of thrusters
to control N-S maneuvers on the one hand and E-W maneuvers on the 'other. In the
42 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
2.5 LAUNCHES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES 43

mid-1990s, one of the heaviest items that was carried into orbit on a large satellite Was the larger satellite system operators, as it is generally uneconomic to build advanced
the fuel to raise and control the orbit. About 90% of this fuel load, once on orbit, was to TTC&M stations with fewer than three satellites to control. Chapter 3 discusses TTC&M
control the inclination of the satellite. Newer rocket motors, particularly arc jets and io~ systems.
thrusters, offer increased efticiency with lighter mass. In general, these low thrust, high
efficiency rocket motors are used for N-S maneuvers leaving the liquid propellant thrusters,
with their inherently higher thrust (but lower efficiency) for orbit raising and in-plane 2.6 LAUNCHES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES
changes. In order to be able to calculate the required orbit maneuver for a given satellite,
A satellite cannot be placed into a stable orbit unless two parameters that are uniquely
the controllers must have an accurate knowledge of the satellite's orbit. Orbit determine
coupled together=-the velocity vector and the orbital height-s-are simultaneously correct.
tion is a major aspect of satellite control.
There is little point in obtaining the correct height and not having the appropriate veloc-
EXAMPLE 2.3.1 Drift with a Geostationary Satellite ity component in the correct direction to achieve the desired orbit. A geostationary satel-
lite, for example, must be in an orbit at a height of 35.786.03 km above the surface of the
A quasi-GEO satellite is in a circulat equatorial orbit close to geosynchronous altitude. The quasi.
earth (42,164.17-km radius from the center of the earth) with an inclination of zero de-
GEO satellite, however, does not have a period of one sidereal day: its orbital period is exactly
grees, an ellipticity of zero, and a velocity of 3074.7 mls tangential to the earth in the
24 h-one solar day. Calculate
plane of the orbit, which is the earth's equatorial plane. The further out from the earth the
(i) the radius of the orbit orbit is, the greater the energy required from the launch vehicle to reach that orbit. In any
(ii) the rate of drift around the equator of the subsatellite point in degrees per (solar) day. earth satellite launch, the largest fraction of the energy expended by the rocket is used to
An observer on the earth sees that the satellite is drifting across the sky. accelerate the vehicle from rest until it is about 20 miles (32 km) above the earth. To make
(iii) Is the satellite moving toward the east or toward the west? the most efficient use of the fuel, it is common to shed excess mass from the launcher as
it moves upward on launch: this is called staging. Figure 2.15 gives a schematic of a Proton
Answer Part (i) The orbital radius is found from Eq. (2.21), as in worked Example 2.2.1. Equa. launch from the Russian Baikonur complex at Kazakhstan, near Tyuratam.
tion (2.21) gives the squate of the orbital period in seconds (remembering that T here is one sol at day) Most launch vehicles have multiple stages and, as each stage is completed, that por-
Tl = (47T2a.l)/IJ- tion of the launcher is expended until the final stage places the satellite into the desired tra-
jectory. Hence the term: expendable launch vehicle (ELV). The Space Shuttle, called the
Rearranging the equation, the orbital radius a is given by Space Transportation System (STS) by NASA, is partially reusable. The solid rocket boosters
aJ = T1IJ-/(47T1) = (86,400)2 X 3.986004418 X 105/47T1 are recovered and refurbished for future missions and the shuttle vehicle itself is flown
= 7.5371216 X 10'.lkm J back to earth for refurbishment and reuse. Hence the term: reusable launch vehicle (RLV)
a = 42.241.095 km for such launchers. More advanced launch vehicles are being developed that would pro-
vide both single stage to orbit (SSTO) and RLV capabilities. The NASA series of X-33 and
Part (ii) The orbital period of the satellite (one sol at day) is longer than a sidereal day by 3 min X-34 test vehicles form the public portion of this quest (see the NASA home page").
0
55.9 s = 235.9 s. This will cause the subsatellite point to drift at a rate of 360 X 235.9/86400 per
day or 0.9830 per day.
Part (iii) The earth moves toward the east at a faster rate than the satellite. so the drift will appear ~~
to an observer on the eatth to be toward the west. I
0' 25:00 4th
10:00 3rd stage ~~~7a~lign
separation
2.4 ORBIT DETERMINATION ~

Orbit determination requires that sufficient measurements be made to determine uniquely

.#
d'~ 05:41 2nd stage
separation
06:10 3rd stage
the six orbital elements needed to calculate the future orbit of the satellite, and hence cal
culate the required changes that need to be made to the orbit to keep it within the nomi·
R 05:34 Payload
fairing jettison
ignition

nal orbital location. Three angular position measurements are needed because there are Major Events from GTO to final User Handoff
00:21 Roll
six unknowns and each measurement will provide two equations. Conceptually, these can 1:27:00 Reach GTO . .
02:07 1st stage
be thought of as one equation giving the azimuth and the other the elevation as a function 3:59:10 Completionof programed turns
Separation!
/ 6:58:00 Completionof Ihe compensationturn
of the six (as yet unknown) orbital elements. 2nd stage ignition
7:09:20 Second 4th stage ignition (2 sec)
The control earth stations used to measure the angular position of the satellites also 7:09:50 Spacecraftseparates from 41hstage, GEO .
7: 10+ Handoftto'User ..
carry out range measurements using unique time stamps in the telemetry stream or com
Lift·off
munications carrier. These earth stations are generally referred to as the TTC&M (telerne-
try tracking command and monitoring) stations of the satellite network. Major satellite
networks maintain their own nC&M stations around the world. Smaller satellite system'
generally contract for such TTC&M functions from the spacecraft manufacturer or frOOI FIGURE 2.15 Schematic of a Proton launch (after reference 5).
 44 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS

. There are also a number of private ventures that. aim to achieve RLV capabilities'
the first decade of the twenty-first century. Two excellent web sites to keep abreast l
~. co

I~................
these, and related space issues, are those maintained by Spaceviews" and Orbreport". O! '"
equal importance to the orbital height the satellite is intended for is the inclination of
orbit that the spacecraft needs to be launched into.
The earth spins toward the east. At the equator, the rotational velocity of a sea leve
~"'I------
I!~====: .•
[HJ~[]
~ -
'" '"
« z: 5a:
:..:

[tl]§][]
<Ii
site in the plane of the equator is (27T X radius of the earth)/(one sidereal day) = 0.465 <II
C'O
ell
kmls. This velocity increment is approximately 1000 !DPh (-1610 kmIh). An easten . - U

-
M_ U
Q)

launch from the equator has a velocity increment of 0.465 kmls imparted by the rotatio ~ f:
0
u,

~§][] ...
of the earth. A satellite in a circular, equatorial orbit at an altitude of 900 km requires
orbital velocity of about 7.4 kmls tangential to the surface of the earth. A rocket launch ~._ ::> <i:
from the equator needs to impart an additional velocity of (7.4 - 0.47) kmls = 6.93 kmI
M- ~
E'
~ :J
.a
in other words, the equatorial launch has reduced the energy required by about 6%. ThiI c

[!!J~[]
Q)
"0
equatorial launch "bonus" led to the concept of a sea launch by Hughes and Boeing"
the launch is not to be into an equatorial orbit, the payload capabilities of any given rock
M- 5
:..:
c
~ ..
wiIJ reduce as the inclination increases.
~ cO
u.
A satellite launched into a prograde orbit from a latitude of <I> degrees will enter
orbit with an inclination of <I> degrees to the equator. If the satellite is intended for ge
stationary orbit, the satellite must be given a significant velocity increment to reorient ~
~§][] co• -'"
M-
a:
:::>
~
~
C
.51
(;j
Vi
orbit into the earth's equatorial plane: For example, a satellite launched from Ca
Canaveral at 28.5° N latitude requires a velocity increment of 366 mls to attain an equs
torial orbit from a geosynchronous orbit plane of28.5°. Ariane is launched from the Guiam
Space Center in French Guiana, located at latitude 5° S in South America, and SeaLaunc
~ [t!]§]~
. ~~
oU') <oN

M:::"
c(LL

8~ e>
Q)
'0
r-,
~
...
<i:
Q)
>

~ ~§][] '" C'O

II c
can launch from the equator. The lower latitude of these launch sites results in significar C'O
U
savings in the fuel used by the apogee kick motor (AKM).
Me M- ~
~ Q)

z
..,.
c.
C'O
u

~ ~§][] s '"oi
<')
Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs) ~~ ~~ ~ vi
<I:
N~ M- ~ X U
1998 was an important year for ELVs: it was the year when the number of commercial u
launches in .the United States surpassed the number of government launches for the full in

~ [(!J§]~
:::r!
-c u; :.:: Q)
u
time", The gap between commercial and government launches will continue to grow. The OT"" CDC\!
~~
cri-
M::' 8~- co
co
r-,
c
e
Teal Group estimated in rnid-1999 that 1447 satellites would be launched worldwide be on ~
tween 2000 and 2009 on 850 to 900 launch vehicles 10. At an average cost of $100 M pel M
x ~

~ [rn§]~ r-, ....

launch, this represents a business worth about $ 90 B over 10 years. Of these 1447 satel 00 cdc\! <C(u. . co Q)
.t:
lites, 893 were considered commercial ventures with the remainder split between militan a;_ ~ M:::" 8~ .en .s
and civilian government spacecraft. There is therefore a healthy market for ELVs and I
'" - <II

?i
number of companies, consortia, and national entities are seeking to enter this expandin;
field. Reference 15 contains a good survey of the ELVs being developed for the twenty·
first century. Figure 2.16 presents a rough comparison between the main launch vehicle!
~ ~§][] ~
.
00'
li)C\I
q&q,
'" ~
CDC\I
crj:::':>
0
a:
'OUJ
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w

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Q)
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.~
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~ ;1;~
~
(/)$
c( ~
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~
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8~- <"
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~E -;;; "" ~o a:

The STS can launch approximately 65,000 lb. (29,478

kg) into a standard 28.5° orbital inclination at an or-
shuttle is rarely used to launch civilian payloads, iu
mission being confined to military payloads [e.g.
OO~ (.)
~ ~ E "
- :;;~
~~
w...,
.. en
ID

eli
bital height of about 200 Ian. from the Kennedy Space TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System! .gE 0 -c 1&1
a:
Flight Center in Cape Canaveral. If the Vandenburg satellites], joint ventures with other agencies [e.g. rf ~ ;:)
~
Air Force Base launch site in California still had the ESA (European Space Agency) Spacelab facilitj]
capability of launching the Shuttle, the payload ca-
"'"
"big science" missions (e.g., the X-ray telescos
pability of the Shuttle for a polar launch (inclination Chandra), and International-Space Station flights. Th
90°) would be reduced to -32,000 Ib (14,512 kg), vast majority of the satellite launches are thereto'
Since the Challenger accident in January 1996, the conducted by expendable launch vehicles.
45
46 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS 2.5 LAUNCHES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES 47

$M TABLE 2.4 Some Launch Vehicle Selection Factors

200 Price/cost
180 Reliability
160 Recent launch success/failure history
Dependable launch schedule
140
Urgency of your launch requirement
120 13.9_ Performance
100 ! Arlane 44L Ar)ane 5 Spacecraft fit to launcher (size, acoustic, and vibration environment)
Flight proven (see recent launch history)
80
60
Zenlt 3 f t Safety Issues

40
Long March 38 ! I Proton D+e I Launch site location
AvaliabiUty
Delta II
What is the launcher backlog of orders?
20
What is the launch site backlog of launches?
0 Market issues
4 6 8 10 12
Pounds into Geostationary Transfer Orbit What will the market bear at this particular time?

FIGURE 2.17 launch vehicle market price vs performance, 1996 prices (after reference 5).
The launch vehicles have been normalized to a launch into geostationary transfer orbit at an
inclination of 28°. The trend line for launchers is shown as $12,000 per pound. Note that
Lonq March, Zen it, and Proton are well below this trend line, mainly due to aggressive pric-
ing objectives to break into a market long dominated by U.S. and European launchers.
used for Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) injection during the 1990s, plus the Ariane 5
launcher. The 1996 pricing of these vehicles is shown in Figure 2.17. Not included in these
data are the advanced Chinese launch vehicles being developed for both unmanned and
manned missions in the twenty-first century. The largest of these Chinese launch vehicles
rivals the Ariane 5 vehicle with a geostationary transfer orbit capability of 26,000 lb.
TABLE 2.3 Some Next Generation Launchers Compared with Ariane
and Atlas liAS Baseline
.
Vehicles (1999 Prices)
It can be seen from Figure 2.17 that there was a well-established trend line of about
$25,000 per kg into GTO prior to the introduction of the Chinese Long March and the
Russian Zenit and Proton vehicles. The pricing of the Chinese and Russian launchers re-
flected an aggressive marketing strategy to break into the launch services field. Ariane 5
was the first of the next-generation launchers aimed at both large, single payloads into
GTO and multiple payload injection into LEO and MEO. Some more next-generation
launchers are shown in Table 2.3 on the previous page. It is-anticipated that the bulk of
the large satellite launches will be conducted with Atlas V, Delta IV, and Ariane vehicles
and their Russian and Chinese equivalents over the first 2 decades of the twenty-first cen-
tury. The decision on which particular rocket to use in a given situation will depend on a
44 variety of factors. Some of these are set out in Table 2.4.
The decision-making routine using the above criteria is shown in Figure 2.18.

Weight to Total cost Lead time Max. payload Launch

Launcher orbit (kg) (SM) (months) diameter (m) latitude (0) Launch Vehicle Selection Factors
Ariane 44 4000 130 36 3.65 5.2
Ariane 5 6800 120 36 4.57 5.2 • Cost to manufacturer
Atlas-liAS
Atlas IliA
3700
4120
100
125
36
36
3.45
4.19
28.5
28.5
At '- • "Performance", or throw-weight to orbit
• Reliability
• Schedule dependability
Atlas IIIB 4500 135 48 4.19 28.5 • Price/cost
• Reliability • Market forces
Atlas V 6500 150* 48 5.40 28.5 • Insurance
- Recent failures
Delta III 3800 130 36 4.00 28.7
• DependableI,""", "h~
Delta IV(small) 2177 60* 36* 3.00 28.7 - Urgency of the customer
Delta IV(med.) 4173 120* 36* 4.00 28.7 • Performance
Delta IV(heavy) 13200 400* 48* 28.7 • Spacecraft fit
5.00
• Flight proven .
Titan III 4500 260 36 3.65 28.6
• Safety
Titan IV 5700 435 48 4.57 28.6 • Launch site location
Proton M 4800 80 24 3.68 51.6 • Availability-Launch site; vehicle; schedule;
• Market conditions-What the market will bear
• These data are estimated values.
FIGURE 2.18 Schematic of the decision making process to select a rocket for a
The Atlas V and Proton M vehicles are planned for operational flights beginning in 2002 or
given satellite requirement (after reference 5).
2003. The Delta IV family of launch vehicles will become operational from 2002 to 2004.
48 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
2.6 ORBITAL EFFECTS IN COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE 49
FIGURE 2.19 Illustration of the

,
GTO/AKMapproach to geosta·
tionary orbit (not to scale). The
- , ~"
-, ......
FIGURE 2.20 Illustration of slow orbit
raising to geostationary orbit (not to scale).
" "", ',Y,"::::-" '.;:
I
/
/ /
, \
combined spacecraft and final
" '\'~'''--''-, The combined spacecraft and final rocket
rocket stage are placed into low \ \ \ \
stage are placed into low earth orbit (LEO)
I
I
I \
\
\ earth orbit (LEO)around the
\
\
\
\
\
, \
\
'\
\
around the earth. As before (see Figure
I \
earth. After careful orbit deterrnt, GTO" '- '. '- '-
I \ \ \ \ \ \ 2.19). the spacecraft is injected into GTO but,
I I nation measurements, the final \ \ \ \ \
LEO I I I \ in this case, once the satellite is ejected from
: LEO \ GTO stage is ignited in LEO and the I I I
I .....
----.... I I I I
the final rocket stage, it deploys many of the
I ,.. "I spacecraft inserted into a transfer I I I
elements that it will later use in GEO (s.<?_Ic~.r
'1/ ',I orbit that lies between the LEO / I :
\
\ I
I \
\ I
I panels, etc.) and stabilizes its attitude using
I / I
and the geostationary orbit attl- thrusters and momentum wheels, rather
\\ I
I .' II I
I
tude: the so-called geostationary than being spin-stabilized. The higher power
\\ 1/ transfer orbit or GTO. Again, af-
'~ j/ thrusters are then used around the apogee
~'........ _--_ .....
",' ter more careful orbit deterrnina. to raise the perigee of the orbit until the
tion, the apogee kick motor orbit is circular at the GEO altitude. At the
Perigee:
GTO insertion starts here (AKM)is fired on the satellite same time as the orbit is being raised, the
and the orbit is both 'circularized thruster firings will be designed gradually to
at geostationary altitude and the GEO
reduce the inclination to close to zero.
inclination reduced to close to
zero. The satellite is then in GEO.

Some of the launch vehicles deliver the spacecraft directly to geostationary orbit
(called a direct-insertion launch) while others inject the spacecraft into a geostationary
transfer orbit (GTo'). Spacecraft launched into GTO. must carry additional rocket motors
andlor propellant to enable the vehicle to reach the geostationary orbit. There are three
ba~ic ways to achieve geostationary orbit.
Placing Satellites into Geostationary
Geostationary Transfer Orbit and AKM The initial approach to launching geo-
stationary satellites was to place the spacecraft, with the final rocket stage still attached.
into low earth orbit. After a couple of orbits, during which the orbital elements are measured.
the final stage is reignited and the spacecraft is launched into a geostationary transf~r or-
bit. The GTO. has a perigee that is the original LEO. orbit altitude and an apogee that IS the
GEO. altitude. Figure 2.19 i.JIustrates the process. The position of the apogee point is close
to the orbital longitude that would be the in-orbit test location of the satellite prior to it be-
ing moved to its operational position. Again, after a few orbits in the GTO. while the or-
bital elements are measured, a rocket motor (usually contained within the satellite itseff
is ignited jit apogee and the GTO. is raised until it is a circular, geostationary o~bit. Since
the rocket- motor ftres at apogee, it is commonly referred to as the apogee kick motor
(AKM). The AKM is used both to circularize the orbit at GEO. and to remove any incli-
nation error so that the final orbit of the satellite is very close to geostationary.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit with Slow Orbit Raising In this procedure,
rather than employ an apogee kick motor that imparts a vigorous acceleration over a few min-
utes, the spacecraft thrusters are used to raise the orbit from GTO. to GEO. over a number of
bums. Since the spacecraft cannot be spin-stabilized during the GTO. (so as not to infringe
Orbit
the Hughes patent), many of the satellite elements are deployed while in GTO, including the
solar panels. The satellite has two power levels of thrusters: one for more powerful orbit rais-
ing maneuvers and one for on-orbit (low thrust) maneuvers. Since the thrusters take many
hours of operation to achieve the geostationary orbit, the perigee of the orbit is gradually
raised over successive thruster firings. The thruster firings occur symmetrically about the
apogee although they could occur at the perigee as well. The bums are typically 60 to 80 min
long on successive orbits and up to six orbits can be used. Figure 2.20 illustrates the process.
In the first two cases, AKM and slow orbit raising. the GTO. may be a modified or-
bit with the apogee well above the required altitude for GEO.. The excess energy of the
orbit due to the higher-than-necessary altitude at apogee can be traded for energy required
to raise the perigee. The net energy to circularize the orbit at GEO. is therefore less and
the satellite can retain more fuel for on-orbit operations.

- .' Direct Insertion to GEO This is similar to the GTO. technique but, in this case,
SIDEBAR" . the launch service provider contracts to place the satellite into GEO.. The final stages of
the rocket are used to place the satellite directly into GEO. rather than the satellite using
The first successful GEO satellite was Syncom, lite's deployable elements (e.g., solar panels. an
tennas) were stowed and locked in place to avoid its own propulsion system to go from GTO. to GEO..
launched in 1963. Hughes Corporation built the
satellite and the spacecraft was spin-stabilized damage while the AKM accelerated the satellite 10
while it was in geostationary transfer orbit. In this GEO. Hughes patented the technique of spin stabi .6 ORBITAL EFFECTS IN COMMUNICATIONS
way. the satellite was correctly aligned for the lizing the spacecraft in GTO. To avoid infringing VSTEMS PERFORMANCE
apogee motor firing. The apogee motor was fairly ili~p~~~Mh~s~~~m~ufuctu~rsd~cl~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--------------------~
powerful and the apogee bum was only for a few a new way to achieve GEO, known as a slow orbit
raising technique.
Doppler Shift
minutes. During this apogee burn. all of the satel-
To a stationary observer, the frequency of a moving radio transmitter varies with the trans-
mitter's velocity relative to the observer. If the true transmitter frequency (i.e., the
 2.6 ORBITAL EFFECTS IN COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE 51
50 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS

. in the received signal is

frequency that the transmitter would send when at rest) is IT> the received frequency IR is
higher thanfi when the transmitter is moving toward the receiver and lower thanfT when I::J.j = VT/A = 6354/0.1132 = 56,130 Hz = 56.130 kHz
the transmitter is moving away from the receiver. Mathematically, the relationship [Eq. Part (iv) A Ka-band transmitter with frequency 20.0 GHz has a wavelength of 0.015 m. The cor-
(2.44a)] between the transmitted and received frequencies is responding Doppler shift at the receiver is
fR - iT
---=-=-
111 Vr I::J.j = VT/A = 6354/0.015 = 423.60 kHz
(2,44a)
Doppler shift at Ka band with a LEO satellite can be very large and requires a fast frequency-
or tracking receiver. Ka-band LEO satellites are better suited to wideband signals than narrowband
voice communications. ~ •
(2.44b)
where Vr is the component of the transmitter velocity directed toward the receiver, vp == c
the phase velocity of light (2.9979 X 108 = 3 X 108 mls in free space), and A is the wave. Range Variations
length of the transmitted signal. If the transmitter is moving away from the receiver, then Even with the best station-keeping systems available for geostationary satellites, the position
Vr is negative. This change in frequency is called the Doppler shift, the Doppler effect, Or of a satellite with respect to the earth exhibits a cyclic daily variation. The variation in po-
more commonly just "Doppler" after the German physicist who first studied the phenome,
sition will lead to a variation in range between the satellite and user terminals. If time di-
non in sound waves. For LEO satellites, Doppler shift can be quite pronounced, requiring vision multiple access (fDMA) is being used, careful attention must be paid to the timing
the use of frequency-tracking receivers. For geostationary satellites, the effect is negligible. of the frames within the TDMA bursts (see Chapter 6) so that the individual user frames
arrive at the satellite in the correct sequence and at the correct time. Range variations on
EXAMPLE 2.6.1 Doppler Shift for a LEO Satellite
LEO satellites can be significant, as can path loss variations. While guard times between
A low earth orbit satellite is in a circular polar orbit with an altitude, h, of 1000 kin. A transmitter bursts can be increased to help in any range and/or timing inaccuracies, this reduces the
on the satellite has a frequency of 2.65 GHz. Find capacity of the transponder. The on-board capabilities of some satellites permit both tim-
(i) The velocity of the satellite in orbit ing control of the burst sequence and power level control of individual user streams.

(ii) The component of velocity toward an observer at an earth station as the satellite appears over
the horizon, for an observer who is in the plane of t~e satellite orbit.
Solar Eclipse
(iii) Hence, find the Doppler shift of the received signal at the earth station. Use a mean earth ra-
dius value, r., of 6378 km. A satellite is said to be in eclipse when the earth prevents sunlight from reaching it, that
The satellite also carries a Ka-band transmitter at 20.0 GHz. is, when the satellite is in the shadow of the earth. For geostationary satellites, eclipses
(iv) Find the Doppler shift for this signal when it is received by the same observer. occur during two periods that begin 23 days before the equinoxes (about March 21 and
about September 23) and end 23 days after the equinox periods. Figure 2.21 from refer-
Answer., Part (i) The period of the satellite is found from Eq. (2.21); ence 11 and Figure 2.22 from reference 12 illustrate the geometry and duration of the
eclipses. Eclipses occur close to the equinoxes, as these are the times when the sun, the
Tl = (47T1a3)/ J.L
earth, and the satellite are all neariy in the same plane.
Tl = 47T2 X (6378 + 1000)3/3.986004418 X 105 During full eclipse, a satellite receives no power from its solar array and it must op-
= 3.977754 X 101 S2 erate entirely from its batteries. Batteries are designed to operate with a 'maximum depth
T = 6306.94 s of discharge; the better the battery, the lower the percentage depth of discharge can be. If
the battery is discharged below its maximum depth of discharge, the battery may not re-
The circumference of the orbit is 27Ta = 46,357.3 kin so the velocity of the satellite in orbit is v.
where cover to full operational capacity once recharged. The depth of discharge therefore sets the
power drain limit during eclipse operations.'Nickel-Hydrogen batteries, long the mainstay
Vs = 46,357.3/6306.94 = 7.350 krn/s of communications satellites, can operate at about a 70% depth of discharge and recover
Part (ii) The component of velocity toward an observer in the plane of the orbit as the satellite ap- fully once recharged. Ground controllers perform battery-conditioning routines prior to
pears over the horizon is given by vr = Vs coss, where £I is the angle between the satellite velocity eclipse operations to ensure the best battery performance during the eclipse. The routines
vector and the direction of the observer at the satellite. The angle £I can be found from simple geom- consist of deliberately discharging the batteries until they are close to their maximum depth
etry to be of discharge, and then fully recharging the batteries just before eclipse season begins.
The eclipse season is a design challenge for spacecraft builders. Not only is the main
coss = re/(re + h) = 6378/7378 = 0.8645
power source withdrawn (the sun) but also the rapidity with which the satellite enters and
Hence the component of satellite velocity toward the observer is exits the shadow can cause extreme changes in both power and heating effects over rela-
Vr = V. cosO = 6.354 km/s = 6354 mls tively short periods. Just like a common light bulb is more likely to fail when the current
is switched on as opposed to when it is under steady state conditions, satellites can suf-
Part (iii) The Doppler shift of the received signal is given by Eq. (2.44b). Hence, for this satel-
fer many of their component failures under sudden stress situations. Eclipse periods are
lite and observer, with a transmitter frequency of 2.65 GHz, A = 0.1132 m, and the Doppler s:uft
52 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
U ORBITAL EFFECTS IN COMMUNICATIONS S¥STEMS PERFORMANCE 53

therefore monitored carefully by ground controllers, as this is when most of the equip-
Satellite in eclipse ment failures are likely to occur.

Sun Transit Outage

Sun
Geostationary orbit
FIGURE 2.21 Eclipse geometry (Source: J. J. Spilker. Jr .• Digital Communications by
Satellite. Prentice Hall. p. 144. copyright <C> 1977. Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River.
NJ, reprinted with permission). During the equinox periods around the March 21 and
September 23. the geostationary plane is in the shadow of the earth on the far side of the
earth from the sun. As the satellite moves around the geostationary orbit. it will pass
through the shadow and undergo an eclipse period. The length of the eclipse period will
vary from a few minutes to over an hour (see Figure 2.22). depending on how close the
plane of the geostationary orbit is with respect to the center of the shadow thrown by
During the equinox periods, not only does the satellite pass through the earth's shadow
on the "dark" side of the earth, but the orbit of the satellite will also pass directly in front
of the sun on the sunlit side of the earth (Figure 2.23). The sun is a "hot" microwave
source with an equivalent temperature of about 6000 to 10,000 K, depending on the time
within the Ll-year sunspot cycle, at the frequencies used by communications satellites
(4 to 50 GHz). The earth station antenna will therefore receive not only the signal from
the satellite but also the noise temperature transmitted by the sun. The added noise
temperature will cause the fade margin of the receiver to be exceeded and an outage will
occur. These outages may be precisely predicted. For satellite system operators with more
•
The sun
Geostationary
o .

-- orbit
the earth. ---

,,
,,
Day of the year Day of the year ,,
60 70 60 '90 100 110 240 250 260 270 260 290 ,,
60 Full 80 ,,
shadow <, ,,

70 - ~v ./
V
Half 70 r--... <,
.-
v-
,,
,,
,,

.60
// ~ ./
V shadow <,
60
I'--... ~ ~
,

c:
Iso
~I
\'\ 50
V '\
CD
E
-; 40
II \\ 40
/1 \\
.~
"0
W 30
II l
"0
w 30 'I \\
\
20 '/ 20

~ Earth station
10 10

FIGURE 2.23 Schematic of sun outag~ conditions. During the equinox periods. not only
o 0
does the earth's shadow cause eclipse periods to occur for geostationary satellites. during
11 21 31 10 20 17
26 7 27 7 17
March April September ' October
August the sunlit portion of the orbit. there will be periods when the sun appears to be directly
Date Date behind the satellite. At the frequencies used by communications satellites (4 to 50 GHz), the
FIGURE 2.22 Dates and duration of eclipses. (Source: James Martin, Communications sun appears as a hot noise source. The effective temperature of the sun at these frequen-
Satellite Systems, Prentice Hall. p. 37, copyright <C> 1976 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle cies is on the order of 10,000 K. The precise temperature observed by the earth station an-
River. NJ. Reprinted with permission.) , tenna will depend on whether the beamwidth partially. or completely, encloses the sun.
 54· CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHER!!
than one satellite at their disposal, traffic can be off-loaded to satellites that are just
of, or are yet to enter, a sun outage. The outage in this situation can therefore be
as far as an individual user is concerned. However, the outages can be detrimental to
erators committed to operations during daylight hours.
2.7 SUMMARY
Newton's laws of motion explain the forces on a satel-
lite in orbit. The balance between the force pulling a
satellite inward to the earth-i.e. gravity-and that
trying to fling a satellite away from the earth-kinetic
energy-is a fine one. To achieve stable orbit, a satel-
lite must have the correct velocity, be traveling in the
right direction, and be at the right height for its
velocity. As the orbital height increases, the gravita-
tional acceleration decreases, the orbital velocity
decreases, and the period of the satellite increases. Cal-
culation procedures for obtaining the period of a satel-
lite and its velocity are set out. It is seen that Kepler's
constant, the product of the universal gravitational
constant, G, and the mass of the earth ME' is funda-
mental to many of the equations that give the forces
on the satellite and the velocity of the satellite in its
orbit. Kepler's three laws describing the motion of one
body orbiting another are given and the terminology
employed in satellite ephemeris data is explained. The
relationship between the astronomers' use of Julian
dates and Julian days and the Universal Time Constant
~R~E~F~E~R~E~N~C~E~S~
~ 4~~m~q~~oc~ey~m~~~~~
• need to determine the !'Iaximum possible change in
I. GARYD. GORDONand WALTERL. MORGA1",Principles
of CommunicatioflS Satellites, John Wiley & Sons,
ISBN 0-471-55796-X, 1993..
2. The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (published
annually).
3. http://www.stk.com
4. The NASA liftoff home page is http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.
gov/realtime/JTracklSpacecraft.html The home page al-
lows you to see the International Space Station, weather
and research satellites, and the Shuttle track if it is in
orbit. The page specializing in three-dimensional graph-
ical views of satellites is http://liftoff.msfc.nasa. gov/re-
altimeljtrackl3d1Jtrack3d.html
5. Private communication, EE 4644 Spring 1997, DAVID
WALSHand CLIFGROVES.
6. http://www.spaceviews.com
7. http://www.orbreport.comis a site dedicated to the
space transportation industry and is an element of ISIR,
International Space Industry Report.
8. K. ROUNDTREE, "Launching Payloads by Sea," Launch-
space, pp. 38-39, May/June 1999; see also in the Hughes
web site at http://www.hcisat.com
1 Bxplain what the terms centrifugal and centripetal
~ean with regard to a satellite in orbit around the
earth·
A satel I'"
ue . Iar or biIt aroun d the earth.
IS in a circu
The altitude of the satellite's orbit above the surface
of the earth is 1400 Ian. (i) What are the centripetal
and centrifugal accelerations acting on the satellite in
(UTC), otherwise referred to as GMT, is given. its orbit? Give your answer in mls. (ii) What is the
use of Julian days, which begin at noon, was in velocity of the satellite in this orbit? Give your an-
duced by astronomers to allow them to make 0 swer in km/s, (iii) What is the orbital period of the
vations overnight without: having the day change saleIlite in this orbit? Give your answer in hours, min-
them (as normal UTC days do at midnight). utes, and seconds. Note: Assume the average radius
Locating the satellite in its orbit is a com of the earth is 6378.137 km and Kepler's constant has
process, with a number of possible frames of ret the value 3.986004418 X 105 Ian3/S2.
ence. Different approaches are discussed. Proced
2. A satellite is in a 322-km high circular orbit. De-
for calculating the look angles from the earth to a g
termine:
stationary satellite are given. The natural forces
a. The orbital angular velocity in radians per second;
act on a satellite to cause orbital perturbations are
out and the need for orbital maneuvers explained. b. The orbital' period in minutes; and
important difference between orbital maneuver c. The orbital velocity in meters per second.
and orbital design life is explained. Details on lau Note: Assume the average radius of the earth is
procedures and launch vehicles are provided, w 6378.137 km and, Kepler's constant has the value
typical launch campaign information set out. The 3.986004418 X 105 km3/S2.
basic methods of launching geostationary satel'
3. The same satellite in .Problern 2 above (322-km
are described, one using an apogee kick motor
circular orbit) carries a 300-MHz transmitter.
the other a slow orbit raising technique. Fin
Doppler shift, range variations, solar eclipse, and a. Determine the maximum frequency range over
transit outage are reviewed. which the received signal would shift due to Doppler
effects if received by a stationary observer suitably
located in space. Note: The frequency can be shifted
both up and down, depending on whether the satel-
9. R. DEKOK,"Spacelift in and beyond the next mil frequency due to Doppler (i.e., 2~().
nium," Launchspace, p. 6, May/June 1999. b. If an earth station on the surface of the earth at
10. As reported in jeff@spaceviews.com in July I
mean sea level, 6370 km from the center of the earth,
the biweekly update from the web site given in
can receive the 300-MHz transmissions d~wn to
erence 6. 0
II. J. J. SPILKER,Jr., Digital Communications by Sate' an elevation angle of 0 , calculate the maximum
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977. Doppler shift that. this station will observe. Note: In-
12. JAMES MAR11N, CommunicatioflS Satellite SYlt clude the earth's rotation and be sure you consider
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978. the maximum possible Doppler shift for a 322-km
13. O. M. RUSSELL,"Browsing orbital analysis I circular orbit.
Launchspace, Vol. 3, No.6, p. 24, December I, I
4, What are Kepler's three laws of planetary motion?
14. JAMESR. WERTZand WILEYJ. LARSON,eds., Space
sion Analysis and Design, 3rd Ed., K1uwer Aca Give the mathematical formulation of Kepler's third
Publishers, 200 I. ISBN 0-7923-590 I-I. law of planetary motion. What do the terms perigee
15. Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 151, NB and apogee mean when used to describe the orbit of
December 13, 1999. Special issue on 21st ce a satellite orbiting the earth?
launch vehicles. A satellite in an elliptical orbit around the earth
16. "Chinese Rockets and R&D Advances." Aviation has an apogee of 39,152 Ian and a perigee of 500 Ian,
and Space Technology, Vol. 155, No. 20, pp. 54 What is the orbital period of this satellite? Give your
November 12,2001.
answer in hours. Note: Assume the average radius of
the earth is 6378.137 Ian and Kepler's constant has
the value 3.986004418 X 105 Ian3/S2•
PROBLEMS 55
5, An observation satellite is to be placed into a
circular equatorial orbit so that it moves in the same
direction-as the earth's rotation. Using a synthetic aper-
ture radar system, the satellite will store data on sur-
face barometric pressure, and other weather related pa-
rameters, as it flies overhead. These data will later be .
played back to a controlling earth station after each trip
around the world. The orbit is to be designed so that
the satellite is directly above the controlling earth sta-
tion, which is located on the equator, once every 4 h.
The controlling earth station's antenna is unable to op-
erate below an elevation angle of 100 to the horizontal
in any direction. Taking the earth's rotational period to
be exactly 24 h, find the following quantities:
a. The satellite's angular velocity in radians per second.
b. The orbital period in hours.
c. The orbital radius in kiiometers.
d. The orbital height in kilometers.
e. The satellite's linear velocity in meters per second.
f. The time interval in minutes for which the con-
trolling earth station can communicate with the satel-
lite on each pass.
6, What is the difference, or are the differences, be-
tween a geosynchronous satellite and a geostationary
satellite orbit? What is the period of a geostationary
satellite? What is the name given to this orbital pe-
riod? What is the velocity of a geostationary satellite
in its orbit? Give your ans~er in km/s,
A particular shuttle mission released' a TDRSS satel-
lite into a circular low orbit, with an orbital height of
270 km. The shuttle orbit was inclined to the earth's
equator by approximately 280. The TDRSS satellite
needed to be placed into a geostationary transfer orbit
(GTO) once released from the shuttle cargo-bay, with
the apogee of the GTO at geostationary altitude and the
perigee at the height of the shuttle's orbit. (i) What was
the eccentricity of the GTO? (ii) What was the period
of the GTO? (iii) What was the difference in velocity
of the satellite in GTO between when it was at apogee
and when it was at perigee? Note: Assume the average
radius of the earth is 6378.137 km and Kepler's con-
stant has the value 3.986004418 X lOS kmJ/s2•
7, For a variety of reasons, typical minimum eleva-
tion angles used by earth stations operating in the
commercial fixed services using satellites (FSS) com-
munications bands are as follows: C band 50; Ku band
100; and Ka band 200.
(i) Determine the maximum and minimum range
in kilometers from an earth station to a geostationary
satellite in the three bands. (ii) To what round-trip
signal propagation times do these ranges correspond?
 56 CHAPTER 2 ORBITAL MECHANICS AND LAUNCHERS
You may assume the signal propagates with the ve-
locity of light in a vacuum even when in the earth's
lower atmosphere.
S. Most commercial geostationary communications
satellites must maintain their orbital positions to
within :to.05° of arc. If a geostationary satellite
meets this condition (i.e., it has an apparent motion
:to.05° of arc N-S and :to.05° of arc E-W, as meas-
ured from the center of the earth), calculate the maxi-
mum range variation to this satellite from an earth
station with a mean elevation angle to the center of
the satellite's apparent motion of 5°. You may assume
that the equatorial and polar diameters of the earth
are the same.
9. An interactive experiment is being set up between
the University of York, England (approximately
359.5° E, 53.5° N) and the Technical University of
Graz, Austria (approximately 15° E, 47.5° N) that will
make use of a geostationary satellite. The earth sta-
tions at both universities are constrained to work only
above elevation angles of 20° due to buildings, etc.,
near their locations. The groups at the two universi-
ties need to find a geostationary satellite that will be
visible to both universities simultaneously, with both
earth stations operating at, or above, an elevation an-
gie of 20°. What is the range of sub-satellite points -
between which the selected geostationary satellite
must lie?
10. The state of Virginia may be represented roughly
as a rectangle bounded by 39.5° N latitude on the
north, 36.5° N latitude on the south, 76.0° W longi-
tude on the east, and 86.3° W longitude on the west.
If a geostationary satellite must be visible throughout
Virginia at an elevation angle no lower than 20°, what
is the range of longitudes within which the'subsatel-
lite point of the satellite must lie?
11. A geostationary satellite system is being built
which incorporates intersatellite links (ISLs) between
the satellites. This permits the transfer of information
between two earth stations on the surface of the e
which are not simultaneously visible to any sing!
CHAPTER
satellite in the system, by using the ISL equipment I
link up the satellites. In this question, the effects ~
ray ~ending in the atmosphere may be ignored, pc
SATELLITES
cessing delays on the satellites may initially be ill-
sumed to ~e zero, ~e earth may be assumed to lit
perfectly circular With a flat (i.e., not hilly) surfaCe
and the velocity of the signals in free space (wheth '
in the earth's lower atmosphere or essentially in a va~
uum) maybe assumed to be the velocity of light ina
vacuum.
(i). What is the furthest apart two geostationary
satellites may be so that they can still communica~
with each other without the path between the tw
satellites being interrupted by the surface of the earth:
Give your answer in degrees longitude between th;
subsatellite points. (ii) If the longest, one-way delay
permitted by the ITU between two earth stations
communicating via a space system is 400 ms, What
is the furthest apart two geostationary satellites may
be before the transmission delay of the signal from
one earth station to the other, when connected through
the ISL system of the two satellites, equals 400 ms?
The slant path distance between each earth station and
the geostationary satellite it is communicating with
may be assumed to be 40,000 km. (iii) If the satel,
lites in part (ii) employ onboard processing, which
adds an additional delay of 35 ms in each satellite,
what is the maximum distance between the lSI.-
linked geostationary satellites now? (iv) If both of the
two earth stations used in parts (ii) and (iii) must ad.
ditionally now send the signals over a 25OO-kmopti-
cal fiber line to the end user on the ground, with an
associated transmission delay in the fiber at each end
of the link, what is the maximum distance between
the ISL-linked geostationary satellites now? You may
assume a refractive index of 1.5 for the optical fiber
and zero processing delay in the earth station equip-
ment and end user equipment.
. 3.1
3
Maintaining a microwave communication system in orbit in space is not a simple prob-'
lem, so communications satellites are very complex, extremely expensive to purchase, and
also expensive to launch. A typical large geostationary satellite, for example, is estimated
to cost around $125 M, on station (see Chapter 2). The cost of the satellite and launch are
increased by the need to dedicate an earth station to the monitoring and control of the
satellite, at a cost of several million dollars per year. The revenue to pay these costs is ob-
tained by selling the communication capacity of the satellite to users, either by way of
leasing circuits or transponders, or by charging for circuit use, as in the international
telephone and data transmission service.
Communications satellites are usually designed to have a typical operating life-
time of 10 to 15 years. The operator-of the system hopes to recover the initial and op-
erating costs well within the expected lifetime of the satellite, and the designer must
provide a satellite that can survive the hostile environment of outer space for that long.
In order to support the communications system, the satellite must provide a stable plat-
form on which to mount the antennas, be capable of station keeping, provide the required
electrical power for the communication system, and also provide a controlled tempera-
ture environment for the communications electronics. In this chapter we discuss the sub-
systems needed on a satellite to support its primary mission of communications. We
also discuss the communications subsystem itself in some detail, and other problems
such as reliability. _ I
The emphasis throughout this chapter is on satellites in geostationary orbit. Com-
munications satellites for low earth orbit are in most cases quite similar to small GEO
satellites and have similar requirements.' The discussion of satellites in this chapter is
necessarily brief. For more details of the many subsystems used on satellites and their
construction and operation the reader should refer to reference 1. Much information
about individual satellites can be found on the web sites of satellite manufacturers and
operators. See Table 1.1-1..4 in Chapter 1 for an extensive listing, which includes Web
addresses,
SAT,ELLITE SUBSYSTEMS
The major subsystems required on the satellite are given below. Figure 3.1 shows an ex-
ploded view of a typical geostationary (GEO) satellite with several of the subsystems
indicated.
Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS)
This subsystem consists of rocket motors that are used to move the satellite back to the
correct orbit when external forces cause it to drift off station and gas jets or inertial devices
that control the attitude of the satellite.
57