Satellites and Sensors: How they work - College of Earth ...
A rocket of initial mass, Mi, burning a mass of fuel Mf will increase its velocity, DV, by where U is the velocity of the exhaust gases with respect to the rocket. U = 2.4 kms-1 orbital velocity of a satellite is about 7kms-1 Rocket must be about 97% fuel Payload can only be about 3% of rocket mass