What? What rep? Where? Names? Recordings? Welcome to Sat - Guys LOL 1st post and its a breaking news story.
The satellite will not be HIGHER if moved to a new orbital slot, just more centrally located above the CONUS.
A geostationary orbit (abbreviated GEO) is a circular orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0º latitude). Any point on the equator plane revolves about the Earth in the same direction and with the same period as the Earth's rotation. It is a special case of the geosynchronous orbit (abbreviated GSO), and the one which is of most interest to operators of artificial satellites (including communication and television satellites). Satellite locations may differ by longitude only (remember in geostationary orbit latitude is zero).
The idea of a geosynchronous satellite for communication purposes was first published in 1928 by Herman Potocnik. Geosynchronous and geostationary orbits were first popularised by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 as useful orbits for communications satellites. As a result they are sometimes referred to as Clarke orbits. Similarly, the Clarke Belt is the part of space approximately 35,786 km above mean sea level in the plane of the equator where near-geostationary orbits may be achieved.
Geostationary orbits are useful because they cause a satellite to appear stationary with respect to a fixed point on the rotating Earth. As a result, an antenna can point in a fixed direction and maintain a link with the satellite. The satellite orbits in the direction of the Earth's rotation, at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km (22,240 statute miles) above ground. This altitude is significant because it produces an orbital period equal to the Earth's period of rotation, known as the sidereal day.
Geostationary orbits can only be achieved very close to the ring 35,786 km directly above the equator. In practice this means that all geostationary satellites have to exist on this ring, which poses problems for satellites needing to be decommissioned at the end of their service life (for example when they run out of thruster fuel). Such satelites will either continue to be used in inclined orbits (where the orbital track appears to follow a figure-of-eight loop centred on the Equator) or be raised to a "graveyard" disposal orbit.
A geostationary transfer orbit is used to move a satellite from low Earth orbit (LEO) into a geostationary orbit. A worldwide network of operational geostationary satellites are used by meteorological satellites to provide visible, as well as infrared images of Earth's surface and atmosphere. These satellite systems include:
* the US GOES
* METEOSAT, launched by the European Space Agency and operated by the European Weather Satellite Organization, EUMETSAT
* the Japanese GMS
Most commercial communications satellites and television satellites operate in geostationary orbits. (Russian television satellites have used elliptical Molnya and Tundra orbits due to the high latitudes of the receiving audience.)
A statite, a hypothetical satellite that uses a solar sail to modify its orbit, could theoretically hold itself in a "geostationary" orbit with different altitude and/or inclination from the "traditional" equatorial geostationary orbit. However, this would rely on using the solar wind at high altitude outside the Earth's magnetosphere.