Ashish Ranjan
Isro successfully de-orbits dead Megha Trophiques satellite: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was able to take a satellite out of orbit on Tuesday after its mission was over. Megha Trophiques-1 was taken out of orbit and burned up in the sky over the Pacific Ocean as it fell apart.Isro tweeted, “The decommissioned Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) controlled re-entry experiment was done successfully on March 7, 2023.”
The controlled re-entry experiment for the decommissioned Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) was carried out successfully on March 7, 2023.
The satellite has re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and would have disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean. pic.twitter.com/UIAcMjXfAH
— ISRO (@isro) March 7, 2023
Megha-Tropiques-1 was sent into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on October 12, 2011, as a joint mission by Isro and the French space agency, CNES, to study tropical weather and climate. The mission was supposed to run for three years, but it was kept going for ten years because it kept sending back important information about the climate.
After the satellite’s mission was over, Isro destroyed it as part of its agreement with the United Nations Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (UNIADC). The UN guidelines say that when a satellite reaches the end of its useful life, it should be taken out of orbit, preferably through controlled re-entry to a safe impact zone or by moving it to an orbit with a lifetime of less than 25 years.
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Isro said that Megha-Tropiques-1 still had about 125 kg of fuel on board, which was thought to be enough for a fully controlled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.India has spoken out about the problems caused by the space junk that orbits Earth and how it makes it hard to make observations and even makes it more likely that things will crash in space.
