The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 07, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 20, 2001
John H. Murphy, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A non-uniform planar spaced constellation of satellites for providing continuous global or regional coverage including at least one pair of orbital planes having inclined co-rotating orbits, and at least one other orbital plane immediately adjacent one orbital plane of the pair of orbital planes having an inclined counter-rotating orbit, and wherein the fields of view of the satellites in the one pair of co-rotating orbital planes form an overlapped array of hexagonal packing at the equator, and the field of view of the satellites in the one other counter-rotating orbital plane and the one co-rotating orbital plane of the pair of co-rotating orbits form an overlapped array of rectangular packing at the equator, and wherein the spacing between the pair of co-rotating orbital planes is greater than the spacing between the one other counter-rotating orbital plane and the one co-rotating orbital plane.