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How do they deploy evenly spaced sattelites on the same orbit?
by rossmohax 7y ago
How do they deploy evenly spaced sattelites on the same orbit?
- erwinh 7y agoYou can launch them all at once on a sort of dispenser system. Then after they are separated they are on the exact same orbit. By increasing or decreasing that orbit height by just a tiny bit they will speed up or down and start to disperse. Over multiple days/weeks they will start to disperse across that orbit. Once they are all spaced to the position where they want them they move up/down again to the exact orbit to maintain position. Maybe later in the year I'll make an animation about it, because initially it is a bit counter intuitive but once you get it it makes a lot of sense :)
- numpad0 7y agoEasy. Just fly the upper stage slightly higher than wanted and shoot one at a time into the final orbit desired distance apart. (Payloads’ own engines works fine though)