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Orbital decay is a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods. These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite , a star and any object orbiting it, or components of any binary system .
The orbital period is decreasing at 2.373 × 10 −11 seconds per second giving a characteristic timescale of 210,000 years. [1] This decay is mostly due to the emission of gravitational waves, however 7% of the decay could be due to tidal losses. [1] The decay is predicted to go for 130,000 years when the orbital period should reach 5 minutes.
Orbital decay is much slower at altitudes where atmospheric drag is insignificant. Slight atmospheric drag , lunar perturbation , and solar wind drag can gradually bring debris down to lower altitudes where fragments finally re-enter, but this process can take millennia at very high altitudes.
Operation Burnt Frost was a military operation to intercept and destroy non-functioning U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite USA-193. [1] The mission was described by the Missile Defense Agency as a "mission of safeguarding human life against the uncontrolled re-entry of a 5,000-pound satellite containing over 1,000 pounds of hazardous hydrazine propellant". [2]
A number of reports of phenomena in the U.S. states of Texas, Kentucky, and New Mexico were attributed to debris from the collision in the days immediately following the first reports of the incident in 2009, [23] although NASA and the United States Strategic Command, which tracks satellites and orbital debris, did not announce any reentries of ...
The orbital decay of Kosmos-1408 since 1980, compared with the ISS. Kosmos-1408 was part of the Tselina-D system. [5] [6] It had a mass of around 1,750 kg (3,860 lb), [7] [8] and a radius of around 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in). [9] It is thought to have replaced Kosmos-1378 in the Tselina system, since it was launched into a similar orbital plane. [4] [10]
At higher altitudes, where air drag is less significant, orbital decay takes longer. Slight atmospheric drag, lunar perturbations, Earth's gravity perturbations, solar wind, and solar radiation pressure can gradually bring debris down to lower altitudes (where it decays), but at very high altitudes this may take centuries. [57]
In April 2010, only five years into a planned 15-year mission, its operator, Intelsat, lost control of the satellite and it drifted out of its orbital slot. Several months later, on December 27, 2010, the satellite rebooted itself and began responding to commands again. [5] Intelsat re-positioned it back to its original orbital slot in April 2011.