Satellites orbit Earth at incredible speeds
Satellites orbit Earth at a staggering 17,000 miles per hour, a speed crucial for defying gravity and enabling essential services like GPS and global communication.
Satellites in low Earth orbit race around the planet at about 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 km/h). This blistering speed is essential to defy Earth's gravity, allowing them to complete an orbit roughly every 90 minutes and circle the globe up to 16 times daily. For perspective, the International Space Station, orbiting at 250 miles high, moves even faster at 17,500 mph, easily outrunning a commercial jet by 20 times.
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