The Washington Post has an interesting article entitled "Pentagon Scrambles for Satellites" here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56320-2003Mar19.html I was interested in the following quote from this article: "The shortage of capacity over Iraq is in part a result of the country's historic refusal to allow companies to put satellites in stationary orbit over the country, according the London Satellite Exchange's Chabert [Nathanael G. Chabert, chief technical officer of the London Satellite Exchange]. The communications satellites now serving Iraq are, in effect, relaying signals to the region from other orbits." Since Iraq is not on the equator, obviously there can't be any geosynchronous satellites directly overhead. But the article certainly implies that a satellite could be put in a stationary orbit over Iraq. Am I missing something? Could the article referring to geosynchronous slots that have been allocated to Iraq although they are not directly over Iraq? I also don't understand the comment about relaying signals from other orbits, since a signal can go directly between a geosynchronous satellite and Iraq. The article goes on to say: "But not all satellites are affected by the international restrictions. Unlike geostationary communication satellites, which hover 22,500 miles in space as they spin in sync with the earth, low-orbit satellites are permitted under international law to spin around the globe at over 17,000 mph." Are there international restrictions such that countries on the equator have the rights to all geosynchronous slots overhead? I always thought that geosynchronous slots were assigned by international treaty -- what "international restrictions" does the article refer to? Thanks in advance for your insights. - Kevin __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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