This paper studies the performance of switch and stay combining (SSC) diversity receivers operating over correlated Ricean fading satellite channels. Using an infinite series representation for the bivariate Ricean probability density function (PDF), the PDF of the SSC output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is derived. Capitalizing on this PDF, analytical expressions for the corresponding cumulative distribution function (CDF), the moments of the output SNR, the moments generating function (MGF), and the average channel capacity (CC) are derived. Furthermore, by considering several families of modulated signals, analytical expressions for the average symbol error probability (ASEP) for the diversity receivers under consideration are obtained. The theoretical analysis is accompanied by representative performance evaluation results, including average output SNR (ASNR), amount of fading (AoF), outage probability (Pout), average bit error probability (ABEP), and average CC, which have been obtained by numerical techniques. The validity of some of these performance evaluation results has been verified by comparing them with previously known results obtained for uncorrelated Ricean fading channels.