ACQUIRING LEO SATELLITES WITHOUT COMPASS

A method and apparatus for establishing a communication link between a user terminal and a first satellite associated with a first satellite service are disclosed. The user terminal determines a position of the user terminal based, at least in part, on location information provided by a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver associated with the user terminal, determines a reference azimuth of the user terminal based, at least in part, on a position of a second satellite associated with a second satellite service that is different than the first satellite service, obtains ephemeris data for the first satellite, and aligns a directional antenna of the user terminal with the first satellite based, at least in part, on the position of the user terminal, the reference azimuth of the user terminal, and the received ephemeris data.