Wow! ISRO to DESTROY MT1 satellite by crashing it back on Earth (ISRO, CNES)

The Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) will be destroy Earth orbiting satellite, Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1), today, March 7.  (Unsplash)

Enter The low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1) was launched on October 12, 2011. (ISRO)

It was a joint satellite venture of ISRO and the French space agency CNES for tropical weather and climate studies. (Pixabay)

The mission was supposed to go on for 3 years, but amazingly, the satellite continued to send valuable data till 2021. (Pixabay)

The UN/IADC space debris mitigation guidelines recommend deorbiting a LEO object at its end-of-life. (Pixabay)

Preferably, the satellite should be destroyed through controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and then directed to a safe impact zone on the ground. (ISRO)

With about 125 kg on-board fuel still in the satellite, it was deemed enough to conduct an Earth re-entry, as keeping it in space could have led to an accidental break-up. (Pixabay)

Controlled re-entries involve deorbiting to very low altitudes to ensure impact occurs within a targeted safe zone. Large satellites are generally considered to be safe for this. MT1 is neither large nor designed for re-entry. (Pixabay)

ISRO stated that additional factors like an aged satellite, redundant/degraded performance of several systems and harsh environmental conditions made it a challenging mission. (ISRO)

An uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean has been identified as the targeted re-entry zone for MT1. (ISRO)

Since Aug 2022, 18 orbit manoeuvres were performed to progressively lower the orbit. (Pixabay)

The final two de-boost burns followed by the ground collision are expected to take place between 16:30 IST to 19:30 IST. (Pixabay)