A geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step for reaching their final orbit.
A GTO is highly elliptic. Its perigee (closest point to Earth) is typically as high as low Earth orbit (LEO), while its apogee (furthest point from Earth) is as high as geostationary (or equally, a geosynchronous) orbit. That makes it a Hohmann transfer orbit between LEO and GSO.
While some GEO satellites are launched directly to that orbit, often times the launch vehicle lacks the power to put both the rocket and the satellite into the particular orbit. So, extra fuel is added to the satellite, the launch vehicle launches to a geostationary transfer orbit; then the satellite circularises its orbit at geostationary altitude. This benefits from staging: the launch vehicles and the mass of its structure and engines do not need to be lifted up to a circular geostationary altitude.
Manufacturers of launch vehicles often advertise the amount of payload the vehicle can put into GTO.
GTO is a highly elliptical Earth orbit with an apogee(the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is furthest from the earth) of , or a height of above sea level, which corresponds to the geostationary altitude. The period of a standard geosynchronous transfer orbit is about 10.5 hours. The argument of perigee is such that apogee occurs on or near the equator. Perigee can be anywhere above the atmosphere, but is usually restricted to a few hundred kilometers above the Earth's surface to reduce launcher delta-V () requirements and to limit the orbital lifetime of the spent booster so as to curtail space junk. If using low-thrust engines such as electrical propulsion to get from the transfer orbit to geostationary orbit, the transfer orbit can be supersynchronous (having an apogee above the final geosynchronous orbit).
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Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in space - principally in Earth orbit - which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft - nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages - mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft.
Delta-v (more known as "change in velocity"), symbolized as ∆v and pronounced delta-vee, as used in spacecraft flight dynamics, is a measure of the impulse per unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver such as launching from or landing on a planet or moon, or an in-space orbital maneuver. It is a scalar that has the units of speed. As used in this context, it is not the same as the physical change in velocity of said spacecraft. A simple example might be the case of a conventional rocket-propelled spacecraft, which achieves thrust by burning fuel.
A geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit, or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997, NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite payloads orbiting Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris as tracked by the Goddard Space Flight Center. More than 16,291 objects previously launched have undergone orbital decay and entered Earth's atmosphere. A spacecraft enters orbit when its centripetal acceleration due to gravity is less than or equal to the centrifugal acceleration due to the horizontal component of its velocity.
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