On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:35:46 GMT, Robert Sherrod
wrote:

There was only one ship in orbit in "Independence Day", the mother ship.
All of the other ships that detached from the mother ship, the daughter
ships, so to speak, were all within the Earth's atmosphere. That is why
the satellites were necessary to overcome the line-of-sight problem
between the mother ship and the daughter ships on the opposite side of
the planet.

Some invaders. They couldn't invade a race that hadn't progressed to
the satellite stage yet.

Suspension of disbelief aside, it was a pretty good movie.