High Earth orbit

This article is about a variation of geocentric orbit. For elliptic orbit, see Highly elliptical orbit.

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

A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an altitude entirely above that of a geosynchronous orbit (35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi)).^[1] The orbital periods of such orbits are greater than twenty-four hours, therefore satellites in such orbits have an apparent retrograde motion – that is, even if they are in a prograde orbit (90° > inclination >= 0°), their orbital velocity is lower than Earth's rotational speed, causing their ground track to move westward on Earth's surface.

Examples of satellites in high Earth orbit

Name	NSSDC id.	Launch date	Perigee	Apogee	Period	Inclination
Vela 1A^[2]^[3]	1963-039A	1963-10-17	101,925 km	116,528 km	6,519 min	37.8°
IBEX	2008-051A	2008-10-19	61,941 km	290,906 km	12,963 min	16.9°

Gravitational orbits

General	Box Capture Circular Elliptical / Highly elliptical Escape Graveyard Hyperbolic trajectory Inclined / Non-inclined Osculating Parabolic trajectory Parking Synchronous semi sub Transfer orbit

Geocentric	Geosynchronous Geostationary Sun-synchronous Low Earth Medium Earth High Earth Molniya Near-equatorial Orbit of the Moon Polar Tundra

About other points	Areosynchronous Areostationary Halo Lissajous Lunar Heliocentric Heliosynchronous

Shape Size	$e$ Eccentricity $a$ Semi-major axis $b$ Semi-minor axis $Q$ , $q$ Apsides

Orientation	$i$ Inclination $Ω$ Longitude of the ascending node $ω$ Argument of periapsis $ϖ$ Longitude of the periapsis

Position	$M$ Mean anomaly $ν$ True anomaly $E$ Eccentric anomaly $L$ Mean longitude $l$ True longitude

Variation	$T$ Orbital period $n$ Mean motion $v$ Orbital speed $t 0$ Epoch

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