Why “geostationary” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
If you think the US doesn't have a plethora of DoD things in geostationary orbit you would be extremely, terribly wrong. In addition to well known programs like AEHF, WGS for tw…
by walrus01 · Oct 1, 2026
It's the geostationary belt, about 36,000 km up, where satellites stay over one spot on the equator. It's real, only the dots are much bigger than the satellites.
by wanick · Sep 30, 2026
I was replying to a comment where the person was talking specifically about LEO. Interfering with things in geostationary orbit is a whole other question.
by walrus01 · Sep 30, 2026
Handheld S/L-band things like Thuraya, Iridium, Globalstar, Inmarsat phones don't transmit in a very directional way at all. Or things like a Garmin inreach that have an Ir…
by walrus01 · Sep 30, 2026
> It's widely accepted in the commercial two way satellite telecom industry that the NSA has comparable things with big unfolding umbrella-like antennas in geostationary which s…
by ErroneousBosh · Sep 30, 2026
It's not something I can cite with any public URL to a website that's an authoritative source, but if by 'spy' you include SIGINT satellites in that category, yes they absolutel…
by walrus01 · Sep 30, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "geostationary" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "geostationary" over time.
A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a GEO or GSO, is a circular geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 mi) in altitude above Earth's equator, 42,164 km (26,199 mi) in radius from Earth's center, and following the direction of Earth's rotation. Read more on Wikipedia