Orbital plane

The orbital plane of a revolving body is the

The orbital plane is defined in relation to a

By definition, the reference plane for the Solar System is usually considered to be Earth's orbital plane, which defines the ecliptic, the circular path on the celestial sphere that the Sun appears to follow over the course of a year.

In other cases, for instance a

The coordinate system defined that uses the orbital plane as the ${\displaystyle xy}$ plane is known as the perifocal coordinate system.

Artificial satellites around the Earth

For launch vehicles and artificial satellites, the orbital plane is a defining parameter of an orbit; as in general, it will take a very large amount of propellant to change the orbital plane of an object. Other parameters, such as the orbital period, the eccentricity of the orbit and the phase of the orbit are more easily changed by propulsion systems.

Orbital planes of satellites are perturbed by the non-spherical nature of the

A launch vehicle's launch window is usually determined by the times when the target orbital plane intersects the launch site.

See also

• Earth-centered inertial coordinate system
• ECEF
  , Earth-Centered Earth-fixed coordinate system
• Invariable plane, a weighted average of all orbital planes in a system
• Orbital elements
• Orbital state vectors
• Perifocal coordinate system

References

• LCCN 73157430
  .