orbital

1. not comparableOf or relating to, or forming an orbit (such as the orbit of a moon, planet, or spacecraft).

   1 more example

   The 1.2-meter-diameter (4-foot-diameter) telescope has set off on a monthlong journey to its orbital destination of the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, which is nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth and also home to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Euclid will keep pace with Earth as our planet orbits the sun.

   2021 December 24, Don Lincoln, “The telescope that will replace Hubble will launch on Christmas. Here’s why it matters”, in CNN

2. not comparableanatomyOf or relating to the eye socket (eyehole).
3. UKnot comparable(of roads, railways) Passing around the outside of an urban area.

   The M25 is an orbital motorway around London.

   1 more example

   The rail orbital routes outside of the M25 and South Coast are challenging. The corridors aren't particularly reliable, and in some places they don't exist. [...] But the reliability and journey times, particularly on the orbital routes: one train an hour from Gatwick Airport to Reading? Surely we can do better than that?

   2019 October 23, Rail, pages 22, 23

plural orbitals

1. natural sciencesA specification of the energy and probability density of one or more electrons at any point in an atom or molecule, representable as a wave function.
2. UKabbreviationellipsisEllipsis of orbital motorway.
3. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of orbital sander.

   As with most power tools, orbitals can be divided into light and heavy-duty categories.

   1967, Popular Mechanics, volume 128, number 6, page 166