Iridium satellites are in which orbit type?

• A. Geostationary Orbit
• B. Medium Earth Orbit
• C. Low Earth Orbit
• D. High Elliptical Orbit

Answer: (C)

Low Earth Orbit is used because being close to the Earth keeps communication delays short and makes it practical to deploy a large number of satellites in a near-polar belt, providing truly global coverage as they pass overhead and hand off signals from one satellite to the next. Iridium’s large, near-polar constellation relies on these close-in, repeating passes to ensure handheld devices can connect from anywhere on the planet, including high latitudes. If the satellites were in geostationary orbit, they would be far away, causing higher latency and limited visibility for polar regions; higher orbits like MEO or High Elliptical would not provide the dense, continuous global coverage Iridium requires.