low Earth orbit
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AI overview
Low Earth orbit is the region of space between 160 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth's surface where satellites and spacecraft travel around our planet. This zone matters because it's where most human spaceflight happens, including missions to the International Space Station, and where many of our everyday satellites—like those used for weather forecasting and communications—operate.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
A view from the International Space Station, in a low Earth orbit (LEO) at about 400 km (250 mi), with yellow-green airglow visible at Earth's horizon, where roughly at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) the boundary between Earth and outer space lies and flying speeds reach orbital velocities
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, peaking in number at an altitude around 800 km (500 mi), while the farthest in LEO, before medium Earth orbit (MEO), have an altitude of 2,000 kilometers, about one-third of the radius of Earth and near the beginning of the inner Van Allen radiation belt.