What is the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)?

The region of space in between the low Earth orbit and the geostationary orbit is called the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). This orbit is at a distance of 2000 to 35786 kms from the earth's surface. This orbit is ideal for navigation and communication satellites.

Some examples of satellites that operate from this orbit include GPS (Altitude of 20,200 kilometers), GLONASS (Altitude of 19,100 kilometers) and Galileo (Altitude of 23,222 kilometers). Communication Satellites covering the North and South Pole also revolve in MEO.

The MEO satellites have an orbital period ranging from 2 to 24 hours. Telstar, the first experimental satellite launched in 1962, also orbits in MEO.