Wirebook › Glossary › Low Earth orbit
What is low Earth orbit?
In one sentence: Space close to Earth, a few hundred to about 2,000 km up. Newer internet satellites fly here to cut the delay.
A little more
Low Earth orbit is the zone from a few hundred to about 2,000 km up. Satellites there zoom round the Earth in about 90 to 120 minutes, so each one is only overhead for a few minutes and you need thousands of them working together.
Because they're about 60 times closer than geostationary satellites, the round trip is short enough for video calls, and laser links between satellites can even beat cables on very long routes.
It's a bit like… Relay runners passing a baton overhead: none stays long, but together they always have someone above you.