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parking orbit
noun
- a temporary orbit in which a spacecraft awaits the next phase of its mission.
parking orbit
noun
- an orbit around the earth or moon in which a spacecraft can be placed temporarily in order to prepare for the next step in its programme
Word History and Origins
Origin of parking orbit1
Example Sentences
Meanwhile, the Starship upper stage could be inserted into a "parking orbit" after separation, allowing it to be re-filled with propellant.
It was a crucial last step for JWST’s journey through the cosmos, capping off a 30-day voyage from the launchpad to its parking orbit roughly 1 million miles from Earth.
Global Times reported that the Tianwen-1 probe lowered its altitude from its parking orbit before its lander-rover combination separated with the orbiter at around 4 p.m.
The orbiter then rose and returned to its parking orbit about half an hour after the separation, to provide relay communication for the landing craft combo, the Chinese space agency told Global Times.
The first stage, housing nine of SpaceX’s Merlin engines, does the initial heavy lifting, getting the rocket off the ground, while the second stage, with just a single Merlin engine, guides it into a parking orbit.
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