Satellite

Updated: 03/10/2024 by Computer Hope
Illustration of satellites orbiting Earth.

A human-made object that is placed into Earth's orbit. The first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Today, thousands of satellites in space facilitate many services around the world, including GPS (Global Positioning System), global topography, and wireless communications. The illustration shows satellites around Earth and their receiving dishes on different continents.

Note

Many map services can show almost any spot in the world from space.

How to use a satellite using a computer?

Using a service like Starlink, you could connect to low earth orbit satellites put up in space by Starlink. When signing up for this service, you're given a phased array antenna, which connects to the closest Starlink satellite to get broadband Internet access anywhere in the world.

Broadband, DSS, GPS, IPoS, Network terms, Satellite computer, Wi-Fi, XM