Does the signal go through the entire earth? Does it curve and travel around the earth? How come the earth isn’t blocking out the signal? I just can’t wrap my head around it. Same thing with satelites that transmit our internet. There can’t be thousands of satelites in a perfect formation that covers every angle, so how does it work?
PRIMARILY interested in the first scenario, how does the ISS transfer signals to USA if the earth’s mass is between USA and the satelite?
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The two ISS sections can communicate via geostationary satellites back to their mission command centers. The Russian section can communicate using the Russian Luch satellites, while the US section uses the US TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System). Each of these satellite systems can relay messages among their own satellites to and from the mission command center.
>There can’t be thousands of satelites in a perfect formation that covers every angle, so how does it work?
There absolutely are; the GPS and GLONASS systems are big networks of satellites (GPS has 32, GLONASS has 26) that cover basically the whole globe, so that there are always going to be a few satellites in “view” at any time. Satellite internet providers have their own networks of satellites that can provide near global coverage for their clients. There are a total of around 5500 satellites currently operating all around the world for various agencies/companies/countries (nearly 3000 belong to the US or US-based companies alone); this is plenty of satellites to provide many different networks with near complete global coverage.
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