Comparison of several satellite navigation system orbits
Comparison of geostationary, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and COMPASS (medium earth orbit satellites), International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and Iridium Constellation orbits with the Van Allen radiation belts and the nominal size of the earth, drawn by CMG Lee. Earth bitmap is http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_pole_february_ice-pack_1978-2002.png by Geo Swan. The Moon's orbit is around 9 times larger (in radius and length) than geostationary orbit. The animation runs at 1 hour per second. In the SVG file, hover over an orbit or its label to highlight it, and click to load its Wikipedia article.
InnerVan
Allenbelt
Outer VanAllen belt
GeostationaryEarth orbit
Galileo
COMPASSMEO satellites
GPS
GLONASS
Iridium
ISS
Hubble
Radiusof orbit
10000 km
20000
30000
40000
10000 miles
20000
Height abovesea level
10000
20000
30000 km
10000
20000 miles
Orbital period
5 hours
10 hours
15 hours
20 hours
Orbital speed
25000 km/h
20000 km/h
15000 km/h
11000 km/h
15000 mph
10000 mph
7000 mph