Orbital Inclination Effects on Communications Satellite System Design

Starting from the analysis of recommendations and technical reports of the International Telecommunications Union on the stationkeeping and pointing accuracy requirements of quasi-geostationary communications satellites, the following effects of orbital inclination and yaw control error on the system design are discussed: (1) the excursion in longitude during a 24 h period; (2) the efficiency of the geostationary orbit utilization for systems with frequency reuse using linear orthogonal polarizations; (3) the angular tracking requirements of Earth station antennas; and (4) the performance of TDMA systems.