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Sky skimmers: The race to fly satellites at the lowest orbits yet
There's a new race in space, but it's not where you might think. It's happening close to home – in the nearest bit of space, right on the edge of Earth's atmosphere.
Known as Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), spacecraft at these altitudes have to battle against the significantly greater drag from the air in the upper reaches of the atmosphere than their loftier cousins, lest they get pushed out of the sky. A handful of pioneering companies have begun work on designs for satellites that may be able to orbit the planet at these unusually low altitudes while simultaneously harvesting air and using it to make propellant – literally on the fly. Generally, defunct or dead satellites in VLEO will eventually fall back into the deeper atmosphere and break up, limiting the volume of space junk that would otherwise be left orbiting Earth.
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