this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Astronomy
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I think the two numbers are perigee and apogee distance. (Closest orbital point and furthest orbital point)
The joke is that the orbit was clearly originally reported in kilometers, but the article editor "helpfully" converted it to miles and reported it in miles as default, but it makes no sense now because the same "miles" number now equals two different "kilometers" numbers.
Hah I didn't notice
My only understanding is those two distances are the latitude/longitude and the height. Basically imagine it corkscrewing around the earth.
I think that means it's nearly geostationary but instead going in a 415ish km circle above the same spot on earth? Idk.
Geostationary orbit is at about 35k km, the ISS is at about 400 km, so its definitely not geostationary.
The ISS hauls ass across the sky, a full orbit about every hour and a half.