It then spends the next century or more appearing to drift 'backwards' around the orbit when viewed relative to the Earth. Its orbit around the Sun still takes only slightly more than one Earth year. Given enough time, the Earth and the satellite will be on opposite sides of the Sun.

Eventually the satellite comes around to point D where Earth's gravity is now reducing the satellite's orbital velocity. This causes it to fall into a lower orbit, which actually increases the angular speed of the satellite around the Sun. This continues