New Delhi (India), 6th March 2023: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will undertake a difficult experiment of bringing back an old satellite Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1) into the Earth’s orbit on March 7.
The MT1 is a joint Indo-French satellite that was launched in 2011 and since then has been decommissioned. The satellite was launched to study tropical weather and climate changes. It was providing data services, supporting regional and global climate models till 2021.
ISRO said on Sunday that they are a responsible space agency and hence they would take on this challenging mission to minimise junk floating around in outer space.
“The orbital lifetime of MT1, weighing about 1,000 kg, would have been more than 100 years in its 20 deg inclined operational orbit of 867 km altitude. About 125 kg on-board fuel remained unutilised at its end-of-mission that could pose risks for 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. Controlled re-entries involve deorbiting to very low altitudes to ensure impact occurs within a targeted safe zone,” the ISRO said.
