A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a satellite or other space probe. A launch vehicle boosts into the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then fires again to enter the final desired trajectory. The alternative to a parking orbit is direct injection, where the rocket fires continuously (except during staging) until its fuel is exhausted, ending with the payload on the final trajectory.
Read more about Parking Orbit: Rationale For Parking Orbits, Disadvantages of Parking Orbits, Examples
Famous quotes containing the words parking and/or orbit:
“That’s interesting. Sort of a private preserve for teenagers, huh? I suppose as adults we’re lucky to find a parking space.”
—Kenneth Langtry. Herbert L. Strock. Prof. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)