low earth orbit


low Earth orbit

(LEO) An orbit around the Earth of a satellite, etc., at an altitude of less than 5500 km.

low earth orbit

(communications)(LEO) The kind of orbit used bycommunications satellites that will offer high bandwidth forvideo on demand, television, and Internet communications.A satellite in LEO, in contrast to one in a geostationary orbit, is not in a fixed position relative to the Earth'ssurface so several satellites are required to providecontinuous service.

[Ovum report, "Applications for the superhighway", JohnMoroney].