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For the first time, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth, reports the European Space Agency (ESA).
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Posted by EarthSky in Space |
January 22, 2021
A commercial nanosat called SpaceTy Beihangkongshi-1 – launched November 2020 – has successfully used an iodine thruster to change its orbit around Earth. This new thruster might help clear space junk by steering small satellites, at the end of their missions, back into Earth’s atmosphere where they’d burn up.
Image via ESA.
For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth.
The small innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.