transfer orbit

noun

1. the flight path of a space vehicle moving from a nearly circular orbit to one with different parameters.

Example Sentences

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:11 p.m. carrying the Merah Putih 2 telecommunications satellite for Telkom Indonesia to a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

From Seattle Times

“If it continues on its present course and deceleration, in about six months it’ll pass inside the orbit of the moon. By that point it’ll have slowed down to less than eleven kilometers per second. In other words, less than Earth’s escape velocity. “To me,” Sunny said, “this looks like a classic Hohmann transfer orbit.”

From The Verge

Meanwhile, this is the first flight Spaceflight Industries has coordinated that will send spacecraft to a high orbit known as a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

From The Verge

Right now, satellites going into high orbits above Earth are deployed into an initial transfer orbit and then spend six months to a year slowly raising themselves higher with onboard thrusters.

From The Verge

Normally, new spacecraft are dropped off in a "transfer" orbit and spend some time lifting themselves to their final destination.

From BBC