Orbit

An orbit was the state of a celestial object or spacecraft revolving around a star, planet, or moon, especially a periodic elliptical revolution.

Whilst in orbit of the planet Perfecton the IAC cruiser Winton completed an orbit of the planet every 2 hours. (PROSE: Oh No It Isn't!)

In the 1950s on Earth the British Rocket Group achieved several orbital flights. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

In 1997, the United Kingdom used an orbiter/lander arrangement for their spacecraft when they returned to Mars. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

Space stations

In the 26th century every colony had an orbital space station where ships could drop cargo without needing to make planetfall. (PROSE: Love and War)

Spaceports would also be used to facilitate the movement of smaller ships between interstellar ships in orbit and the planets that they orbited. (PROSE: Beige Planet Mars)

Spacecraft could also orbit space stations that were located in deep space in a similar manner as they would a planet. (PROSE: Shakedown)

In the 38th century, Neptune was orbited by Le Verrier. (TV: Sleep No More)

From the years 200,000 to 200,100, Earth was orbited by Satellite Five, later known as the Game Station. (TV: The Long Game, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways) The following year, the Game Station was repurposed into Trear Station. (AUDIO: The Year After I Died)

In the year 5,000,000,000, Earth was orbited by Platform One, where guests witnessed the Sun expand and destroy it. (TV: The End of the World)

Spacecraft orbits

Spacecraft (such as cruisers or shuttles) could orbit a planet in a powered orbit (PROSE: Dragons' Wrath, Father Time) or unpowered orbit which led to a decayed orbit (and finally crashing back to the planet). (PROSE: Love and War)

Spacecraft could also maintain a geostationary orbit; maintaining a fixed position over the planet. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: Another Girl, Another Planet) This was also known as geo-synchronous orbit or simply stationary orbit. (PROSE: Where Angels Fear, Twilight of the Gods)

In 102, the fleets of the Pandorica Alliance entered orbit of Earth before their representatives imprisoned the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

During their invasion of Earth in 2009, the flagship of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet held orbit of Earth at "556.3, sector 270". (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) It was in this position that the flagship was destroyed by Luke Rattigan. (TV: The Poison Sky)

On 24 December 2008, the spaceship Titanic took orbit over Earth, maintained by the ship's nuclear storm drive. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)

Just prior to the invasion of Earth in 2009, the 200-strong fleet of the New Dalek Empire entered the planet's orbit. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

A Dalek flying saucer, carrying the Parliament of the Daleks, took orbit over the Dalek Asylum, waiting for the Eleventh Doctor to deactivate the planet's force field so they could destroy it. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

A broadcast of the Question from Trenzalore led to ships from numerous species taking orbit over the planet, precipitating the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

Artificial satellite orbits

Artificial satellites were also launched into orbit and maintained by many civilisations for planetary communication, defence and geo-location (sometimes called geosats or GPS). (TV: Delta and the Bannermen, PROSE: War of the Daleks, The Sword of Forever, Tears of the Oracle) Some satellites had living beings within. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)

Before the invention of artificial suns, the human race made use of massive orbiting mirrors to provide a day/night cycle and make distant planets habitable. (AUDIO: The House of Kingdom)

Planetary orbits

Thaon 5 was gravitationally locked and cycled through its phases once every 12 days that it completed an orbit. (PROSE: Tempest)

Tempest orbited a mildly unstable flare star every twenty hours. (PROSE: Tempest)

Inside the People's Dyson sphere they had a planet orbiting the star within it. (PROSE: The Also People)

Tyler's Folly orbited an obscure star in the Cygnus Mortis constellation. (PROSE: Down)

Mondas once orbited Earth. (TV: The Tenth Planet)

The observation that New Earth held a similar orbit to the old Earth was one of the factors that humans inhabiting the planet. (TV: New Earth)

Other types of orbits

TARDISes could achieve a temporal orbit. (TV: Doctor Who)