The station would be in a low orbit, less than 500 miles up.

But low orbit means it won't stay up long, maybe five days.

Go faster in order to drop back to a lower orbit?

But they were allowed no closer to Earth than the space stations in low orbit.

Moving into low orbit will obviously increase the risk, but by how much I wouldn't like to say.

"We'll be a sitting duck if we stay in this low orbit for a fight."

It's stuck in one low orbit and that's all it can do.

By now, the launch vehicle is most of the way into low Earth orbit.

"It would mean your spacecraft could never get any closer to Earth than low orbit."

"And before anybody lands I must make a personal survey from low orbit."