Satellites are spaced in height so they don’t collide.
Most move somewhat towards east and not in the other direction because rockets use earth’s rotation as a speed boost if they can. But there are exceptions to all of that and I’m not an expert.
What I know is there are lots of use-cases. A communications satellite probably wants to be fixed in a geostationary orbit so it stays reachable and you can watch TV all day without moving the dish. Or a satellite needs a low orbit so the latency or your internet or phone connection is low. A weather satellite may use an orbit that is in sync with the sun so it takes pictures everywhere at a fixed time of the day… Other measurements can be done better if a satellite has a high speed compared to the ground it is observing…
Yes, all of that. They move in all kinds of directions and at differend speeds and heights. Some are fixed in a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit
Satellites are spaced in height so they don’t collide.
Most move somewhat towards east and not in the other direction because rockets use earth’s rotation as a speed boost if they can. But there are exceptions to all of that and I’m not an expert.
What I know is there are lots of use-cases. A communications satellite probably wants to be fixed in a geostationary orbit so it stays reachable and you can watch TV all day without moving the dish. Or a satellite needs a low orbit so the latency or your internet or phone connection is low. A weather satellite may use an orbit that is in sync with the sun so it takes pictures everywhere at a fixed time of the day… Other measurements can be done better if a satellite has a high speed compared to the ground it is observing…