techristian writes:
The satellite must mysteriously set itself up so that it is neither pulled back by gravity nor let loose into space. It must have that perfect balance between just enough gravity but not too much gravity. How did the satellites get to that perfect spot in the first place?
Actually, if you jump up into the air you are in orbit around the center of the earth. Unfortunately, the perigee (lowest point) of your orbit is not far enough away from the center of the Earth to prevent you from impacting with the surface of the Earth.
Getting an object into orbit is not that big a deal. Just give it enough velocity perpendicular to a line between it and the center of the Earth and it will achieve orbit. Now putting it in an orbit that you want it to maintain is substantially more difficult. A geostationary satellite would have to be moving at a speed of 3.1 km/s (6935 mph)in the direction of the earths rotation (west to east) at an altitude of 35,600 km (22,121 mi). (ABE) The geostationary orbit is always over the Equator.
You can get geosynchronous orbits that fly over the same longitude by ensuring the west-to-east component of the velocity is 3.1 km/s. The latitude would cycle between two extremes in each orbit. The altitude of that satellite would depend on the orbit inclination which would affect the total velocity.
Edited by LinearAq, : correcting information