📘 Definition
The orbital period is the time a satellite takes to complete one full orbit. It is determined by the semi-major axis (essentially the average altitude) of the orbit, following Kepler's third law. In LEO (400 km), the period is approximately 92 minutes. GPS satellites (20,200 km) have a period of 12 hours. GEO satellites (35,786 km) have a period of 24 hours, matching Earth's rotation. Period and mean motion are inversely related: period (minutes) = 1440 / mean motion.
92 min
LEO (400 km)
12 hours
GPS (20,200 km)
24 hours
GEO (35,786 km)
27.3 days
Moon