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Does decommissioning mean that they will be dropping it out of orbit? Will it be visible?
by jensenbox 10y ago
Does decommissioning mean that they will be dropping it out of orbit? Will it be visible?
- walrus01 10y agono, they'll just turn it off, in the entire history of geostationary telecom satellites nobody has launched one with enough reserve delta-V/propellant to deorbit itself. To go from a 36,000 x 36,000 km circular orbit to a 36,000 x 250 km orbit (where the atmospheric drag would cause it to reenter) is a LOT of retrograde delta-v required). There's talk of requiring enough reserve propellant to boost to a new 'graveyard' orbit 1000 km beyond geostationary before turning off a satellite, but it's rarely implemented.