Isro to attempt controlled re-entry of decommissioned satellite

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will attempt a controlled re-entry of a decommissioned low earth orbiting satellite into the earth’s atmosphere on March 7, the national space agency said on Sunday.

In what Isro called “a challenging experiment”, it will attempt a controlled atmospheric re-entry of Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1), a joint venture of Isro and French space agency CNES, launched on October 12, 2011, for tropical weather and climate studies.

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“An uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean between 5°S to 14°S latitude and 119°W to 100°W longitude was identified as the targeted re-entry zone for MT1,” Isro said.

The attempt is “extremely challenging” because MT1 was not designed for end-of-life operations for a controlled re-entry. The final two de-boost burns and the ground impact are expected to take place between 4.30 pm and 7.30 pm on Tuesday. Aero-thermal simulations show that no large fragments of the satellite are likely to survive the aerothermal heating during the re-entry.

The original mission life of the satellite was three years but it continued to provide data services for a decade.

Isro said the move is in accordance with space debris mitigation guidelines by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee on deorbiting Low Earth Orbit objects at their end-of-life.

“About 125 kg on-board fuel remained unutilised at its end-of-mission that could pose risks for an accidental break-up. This left-over fuel was estimated to be sufficient to achieve a fully controlled atmospheric re-entry to impact an uninhabited location in the Pacific Ocean,” Isro said.