Tangential velocities at altitude

edit
Orbit Center-to-center
distance
Altitude above
the Earth's surface
Speed Orbital period Specific orbital energy
Earth's own rotation at surface (for comparison— not an orbit) 6,378 km 0 km 465.1 m/s (1,674 km/h or 1,040 mph) 23 h 56 min 4.09 sec −62.6 MJ/kg
Orbiting at Earth's surface (equator) theoretical 6,378 km 0 km 7.9 km/s (28,440 km/h or 17,672 mph) 1 h 24 min 18 sec −31.2 MJ/kg
Low Earth orbit 6,600–8,400 km 200–2,000 km
  • Circular orbit: 7.7–6.9 km/s (27,772–24,840 km/h or 17,224–15,435 mph) respectively
  • Elliptic orbit: 10.07–8.7 km/s respectively
1 h 29 min – 2 h 8 min −29.8 MJ/kg
Molniya orbit 6,900–46,300 km 500–39,900 km 1.5–10.0 km/s (5,400–36,000 km/h or 3,335–22,370 mph) respectively 11 h 58 min −4.7 MJ/kg
Geostationary 42,000 km 35,786 km 3.1 km/s (11,600 km/h or 6,935 mph) 23 h 56 min 4.09 sec −4.6 MJ/kg
Orbit of the Moon 363,000–406,000 km 357,000–399,000 km 0.97–1.08 km/s (3,492–3,888 km/h or 2,170–2,416 mph) respectively 27.27 days −0.5 MJ/kg
The lower axis gives orbital speeds of some orbits.