What is apogee?

Apogee is the farthest point from Earth that something reaches when it’s going around our planet.

Imagine you're on a swing at the park. You start by pushing yourself forward, that's like a space object getting a push from Earth. As you go higher, you feel the pull of gravity slowing you down just as you reach the top of your arc. That highest point is apogee, the farthest you get from the center of the swing.

Now think about astronauts or satellites orbiting Earth. They're like you on a swing, they move in an oval path, not a perfect circle. When they’re at their apogee, they're as far away from Earth as they’ll get during that trip around our planet.

Sometimes, people use the word perigee to talk about how close something gets, like when you're at the lowest point on your swing. But we’re focusing on apogee today, which is all about going up and reaching that farthest spot in space!