suborbital.

Following a trajectory that reaches toward space but does not complete an orbit around the body from which it departs.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• suborbital flight
• suborbital trajectory

On the page

The suborbital flight gave them four minutes to inspect the horizon.

Their suborbital trajectory would return them to the same continent.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Normally non-gradable in this technical classification; degree language only if a specific measurable context supports it. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.