They say Atlantis has 120 million miles logged on it.

[Winterblues]

That got me thinking. If it was in geosynchronous orbit is it actually moving or is the Earth moving under it, and how would it log a million miles if it wasn't moving?

[Xipe Totec]

1. It was not in geosynchronous orbt

geosynchronous is far out of the shuttle's orbital range.

The Shuttle orbits barely above the atmosphere, 290 kilometers, and about 19.5 orbits per day.

[onehandle]

2. The solar system is moving around the galaxy at over half a million miles per hour.

The earth is moving around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour and revolves at around 1,000 miles per hour.

And then there is the rate at which the galaxy is moving around other galaxies and through the universe. Which has not been definitively determined.

[tkmorris]

4. I guess that's why I feel so old

Just imagining how many miles I have under my belt makes me tired.

[KharmaTrain]

3. It Flies Way To Low For Geo-Synchronus Orbit...

The shuttle flies at a couple hundred miles in "low earth orbit", Geo-synchronus satellites circle at 23,000 miles up. A big difference.

Yes, it actually moves in its own orbit...it circles the earth 23,000 miles every 90 minutes, thus can go 368,000 miles a day. Imagine putting that on a car in a day...

[The Straight Story]

5. Well, I know it wasn't built by Ford

:rofl: :hide:

[leveymg]

6. That's almost as many as we have on my wife's Volvo wagon.

[HopeHoops]

7. Dang, that's almost as much as my '70 Maverick had.