SCIENCE

ISRO performs re-entry of aged satellite

By Sanjana Shankar

1

Successful re-entry

ISRO successfully carried out the controlled re-entry of a defunct low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite, called Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1), on March 7.

2

Statement

The satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and would have disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean, confirmed ISRO via Twitter.

3

Mission

The MT-1 mission was a joint effort by ISRO and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), for tropical weather and climate studies.

4

De-boost burns

The final two de-boost burns were executed at 4:32pm and 6:21pm IST, respectively on March 7. The final perigee was estimated to be less than 80km.

5

Impact

Simulations revealed that there will not be any surviving large debris from the satellite. The final impact region is predicted to be in the deep Pacific Ocean.

6

Monitoring

The entire process was tracked from the Mission Operations Complex in ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network), Bengaluru.

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