Patent ID: 11863289
Assignee: VIASAT INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B | IPC B  H

Claim 7:
8. A method for control of a satellite communications system, comprising:
operating a plurality of satellites each traveling about the Earth in an orbit such that the plurality of satellites have an orbital period that is an integer factor of a sidereal day and all of the plurality of satellites follows a single repeating ground track relative to the surface of the Earth;
equipping each satellite of the plurality of satellites with communication equipment operable to communicate with at least one ground station and a plurality of user terminals to provide data communication service to the plurality of user terminals; and
orienting the orbit of each of the plurality of satellites relative to the Earth to provide continuous satellite visibility to a ground station in a targeted geographic region of the Earth on a first repeating sky track and a second repeating sky track relative to the ground station, wherein the first repeating sky track is different than the second repeating sky track and comprise a different visible satellites in each respective one of the first sky track and the second sky track in any given time;
wherein the orbit is an elliptical orbit having an eccentricity of about 0.26, a semimajor axis of 10,500 km, an apogee of 15,000 km above sea level, and a perigee of 6,000 km above sea level, and the perigee occurs relative to the southern hemisphere of the Earth.