synchronous orbit

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noun

astronautics an orbit in which the orbital period of a satellite is identical to the spin period of the central body

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Words nearby synchronous orbit

synchronous, synchronous converter, synchronous machine, Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, synchronous motor, synchronous orbit, synchronous rotation, synchronous speed, synchrony, synchroscope, synchrotron

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use synchronous orbit in a sentence

Carlisle writes that the Air Force would want a crew ratio of 10 to one for each drone orbit during normal everyday operations.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
During an emergency that ratio could be allowed to drop to 8.5 people per orbit.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Each CAP, also known as an “orbit,” consists on four aircraft.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Other groups in the progressive orbit are trying out other tactics.
Progressives: Big Ideas Will Win Us 2016|David Freedlander|December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Orion will orbit Earth twice before splashing down off the California coast.
To Infinity and Beyond! NASA’s Orion Mission Blasts Off|Matthew R. Francis|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
See that silver spiral going out from Venus and around the table to the orbit of Saturn?
Fee of the Frontier|Horace Brown Fyfe
Each new orbit out from the sun has cost plenty in money, ships, and lives; it's the admission price.
Fee of the Frontier|Horace Brown Fyfe
In an orbit made elliptical by the planetary attraction the sun necessarily occupies one of the foci of the ellipse.
Outlines of the Earth's History|Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Bad her fleen, bade her flee; because her motion in her orbit was faster than his.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems|Geoffrey Chaucer
A dark moon has joined this celestial grouping, and is now swinging in an orbit about the earth.
Astounding Stories, May, 1931|Various

Scientific definitions for synchronous orbit

synchronous orbit

An orbit of a satellite around a rotating body, such that one orbit is completed in the time it takes for the body to make one revolution on its own axis. From the viewpoint of the rotating body (such as Earth), a satellite in synchronous orbit appears to hover over a single position or else to sweep back and forth once per revolution along a single line in the sky. Synchronous orbit is sometimes used synonymously with geostationary orbit, although the two terms are identical only if the synchronous orbit is in the equatorial plane (when the satellite appears to hover motionless over the rotating body). Artificial satellites in synchronous orbits are commonly used in telecommunications, due to their relatively stable overhead position with respect to the Earth's surface. Compare synchronous rotation.