Earth-pointing

English

Adjective

Earth-pointing

1. Of a frame of reference, describing the orientation of a spacecraft relative to Earth.
   • 1995, J. Keat, M. Challa, D. Tracewell, K. Galal, “Earth Horizon Modeling and Application to Static Earth Sensors on TRMM Spacecraft”, in Kathy R. Hartman, editor, Flight mechanics estimation theory symposium 1995, page 229:

     Data from Earth sensor assemblies (ESAs) often are used in the attitude determination (AD) for both spinning and Earth-pointing spacecraft.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Earth,‎ pointing.
   • 1989, Deborah M. Badi, Jeffery T. Farmer, Paul A. Garn, Gary L. Martin, Coneceptual Design of a Synchronous Mars Telecommunications Satellite, page 10:

     Communication from Earth, on channels E1 and E2, is received by the larger Earth-pointing antenna on the Ka band up link frequency.