Flight maneuver
Station-Keeping
The small, regular maneuvers that hold a spacecraft in its intended orbit or slot against perturbations — atmospheric drag, the Moon and Sun's pull, and the Earth's uneven gravity. Geostationary satellites, for instance, must be nudged north–south and east–west to stay on station, a task increasingly handed to efficient electric thrusters.
Highlights
- ›Nudging a satellite to hold its slot
Hardware & related concepts
Across space engineering
Knowledge connections
- Associated withOrbital Rendezvous
- Associated withFlight Dynamics
- Associated withReaction Control System (RCS)
- Associated withElectric Propulsion
- Associated withOrekit
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.