In astrodynamics or celestial dynamics orbital state vectors (sometimes state vectors) are cartesian vectors of position and velocity that together with their time (epoch) uniquely determine the trajectory of a body in space.
Read more about Orbital State Vectors: Frame of Reference, Position Vector
Famous quotes containing the word state:
“So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy to the contrary, was not so much a state of composition, as a state of warfare; and his probation in it, precisely that of any other man militant upon earth,—both depending alike, not half so much upon the degrees of his WIT—as his RESISTANCE.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)