A Study on Orbits of Artificial Stellites

Abstract

Technological developments in the fields of rocket propulsion and guidance have made possible the launching of artificial satellites into one of the many possible space orbits. Once a body has been put into an orbit beyond the influence of the atmosphere, its total energy remains constant and equal to that at rocket burnout. The total energy establishes the class of orbit, which may vary from an ellipse to a hyperbola, the circle and the parabola being limiting cases. However, an infinite number of orbits of the same class are possible for a given total energy at a specified point in space, and the heading angle of the velocity vector at rocket burnout must spacify the particular orbit from the many possible orbits passing through this point.