NEXT-GEN BIRDS

While traditional geostationary communications satellites track the Earth’s rotation from 22,236 miles above the equator, companies like SpaceX are launching lowEarth-orbit (about 1,200 miles up) and middle-Earth-orbit (roughly 12,550 miles up) satellites. These satellites rotate north to south or vice versa, providing better high-latitude coverage. Moreover, geostationary satellites have latency rates upward of 600 to 800 milliseconds, while MEO and LEO satellites only introduce latency times of 125 to 250 milliseconds and 30 to 50 milliseconds, respectively. Those rates are important when using certain enterprise applications for businesses.