yr7 satellites

Artificial satellites

Artificial satellites are built by people and launched by rockets into space, where they orbit around the Earth. These are some of the things that artificial satellites are used for:

• communications, including broadcasting television programmes and relaying telephone calls

• Global Positioning System (GPS) and Galileo satellites for navigation

• collecting information to help with weather forecasts

• scientific surveys of the Earth's surface

• map making

• spying

Space telescopes

Hubble Space Telescope - image courtesy of NASA

Some satellites are used to collect information about the planets and stars…