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

Claim 0:
1. A satellite communications system, comprising:
a plurality of satellites each traveling about the Earth in an orbit such that all of the plurality of satellites has 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;
each of the plurality of satellites including communication equipment operable to communicate with at least one ground station and a plurality of user terminals to provide communication service to the plurality of user terminals; and
the orbit being oriented relative to the Earth to provide continuous satellite visibility between at least one of the plurality of satellites and a ground station in at least one targeted geographic region of the Earth on at least one repeating sky track relative to the at least one ground station, wherein the orbit for each of the plurality of satellites is oriented 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 satellite 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 wherein the perigee occurs relative to the southern hemisphere of the Earth.