On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfr...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > On Fri, 17 Mar 2017 10:03:04 +1300, Gregory Ewing > <greg.ew...@canterbury.ac.nz> declaimed the following: > >>Chris Angelico wrote: >>> I just asked my father, and he believes that a satellite DOES fly, on >>> the basis that it is perpetually falling and forever missing the >>> ground. >> >>Also, NASA people talk about "flying" the ISS, so it seems your >>father is in good company. > > Most likely they are referring to using gyroscopes (reaction wheels), > and maneuvering thrusters to maintain orientation relative to the sun, so > the solar panels stay fully lit.
The ISS orbit is low enough that they also have to do regular (approximately monthly) boosts to counteract the gradual decay. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
