Multi-Orbit Satellite Comms: Past, Present, and Future

Satellite communications have historically relied on Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites for broad coverage (one GEO covers ~1/3 of Earth and long-term reliability. Today, new Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations (e.g., SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb) with thousands of satellites are disrupting the field with lower latency and global coverage. Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) systems, traditionally used for GPS navigation, are expanding into communications (e.g., SES O3b)

Maritime: Since the 1970s, GEO networks like Marisat and Inmarsat have provided ocean-wide coverage for ship communications and safety. Presently, maritime users blend GEO (Inmarsat GX, Intelsat) for reliability with LEO (Starlink, OneWeb) for high-speed internet.