Patent ID: 6701126
Filing Date: 2004-03-02
Classification: B64G,H04B

Abstract:
A satellite communications system, comprising:a ground station, including communications equipment and an antenna, located at a position on the earth; a plurality of satellites in orbits around the earth having apogees and perigees, each of the satellites having communications equipment thereon configured to communicate with the ground station only during a predetermined portion of the satellite's orbit proximate to apogee, the orbits of the plurality of satellites being configured to form at least two ground tracks on the earth displaced from each other longitudinally, each of the ground tracks repeating daily and having a number of active arcs, each active arc corresponding to the portion of the orbit of each satellite during which the communications equipment on the satellite is enabled to communicate with the ground station, the orbits of the plurality of satellites being further configured such that at all times there are at least two of the satellites in each of the active arcs and such that at all times each of the satellites in any one of the active arcs is separated by at least a predetermined angle, as observed from the ground station, from each other satellite in the same active arc and from any satellite in any other active arc.