Unlike most of today's communications satellites, Telstar was on an elliptical orbit, which meant the ground antenna had to track the satellite as it came around the world approximately every 2.5 hours.
Telstar was on an elliptical orbit. This was unlike most of today's communications satellites. The ground antenna had to track the satellite as it came around the world approximately every 2.5 hours. This was what an elliptical orbit meant.