When calculating the velocity of a satellite orbiting a planet, the factor that is not needed is the mass of the satellite.
The velocity of a satellite in a circular orbit can be calculated using the formula:
\[ v = \sqrt{\frac{GM}{r}} \]
where:
- \( v \) is the orbital velocity,
- \( G \) is the universal gravitational constant,
- \( M \) is the mass of the planet,
- \( r \) is the orbital radius (the distance from the center of the planet to the satellite).
As you can see, the mass of the satellite does not appear in this equation, indicating that it is not needed in the calculation of orbital velocity.
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