Space Fact #24: Where We Get Our GPS
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Several dozen satellites are in medium Earth orbit, or MEO, providing our GPS. (For a list of individual satellites, click here.)
The Gravity Well
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from the well
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It really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
