satellite - any object which travels around another object because of their mutual gravitational attraction. The satellite constantly falls toward the heavier object, but forever misses it because of its momentum perpendicular to the line between them. The path of the satellite around the heavier object is called its orbit, and its state of motion is called orbiting. In most cases the satellite repeats the same orbit over and over, but when very close to highly non-spherical objects the satellite's orbit can change rapidly.