
GOES 3 satellite - iamflimflam1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES_3
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devy
GOES 3 is scheduled for final decommissioning on 23 June 2016.[1] :(

[1]:
[http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/21278](http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/21278)

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wwkeyboard
AO-7 is still kind of going, again. It was launched in 1974!
[http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1031](http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1031)

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qzxvwt
Wow:

Total number of operating satellites: 1,381 (includes launches through
12/31/15)[1]

Wasn't aware that the +15,000 satellites (loosely defined) currently orbiting
the Earth (according to SATCAT) are mostly junk...

But one other really interesting thing I found once in this data was that a
huge percentage of all earth orbiting satellites are debris from China's
Fengyun 1C sat, which they blew up into currently over 5000 pieces to test a
missile [2]. I just think it's funny that China did this, and now we have to
track every single piece indefinitely. :)

[1] [http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/space-
weapons/satellit...](http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/space-
weapons/satellite-database) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengyun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengyun)

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mikeash
I don't think it's really indefinitely. Sun-synchronous orbits are usually
600-800km up, and atmospheric drag makes orbits at that altitude decay
eventually. It'll probably take decades before it's gone, but it's not stuck
up there forever.

Another big debris incident was the 2009 collision of an Iridium satellite and
a dead Russian communications satellite:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision)

When you think about the volumes involved, it's pretty amazingly bad luck that
they managed to bump into each other. These were fairly low and the debris is
deorbiting reasonably rapidly, so it's not as big of a deal.

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vocatus_gate
We're working in Antarctica and the South Pole team is involved in the GOES
decommissioning. Pretty interesting stuff.

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kylehotchkiss
Listening to GOES with a handheld radio (they couldn't fit the entire signal
in one channel because it was so wideband) was so cool. I never figured out
how to decode APT signals but so sad that with the goes satellites goes the
amateur ability to get weather images directly from space :/

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walrus01
fun satellite thing: there's actually a LOT of old geostationary orbit telecom
satellites which are still alive for command and control, and their
transponders still work, but they're out of mainstream commercial service
because they've long ago exhausted their station keeping propellant. So you
need an earth station dish with two axis tracking motorized
servos/gears/stepper motors to talk to them reliably.

[https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=inc...](https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=inclined+orbit+satellite&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

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jensenbox
Does decommissioning mean that they will be dropping it out of orbit? Will it
be visible?

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walrus01
no, they'll just turn it off, in the entire history of geostationary telecom
satellites nobody has launched one with enough reserve delta-V/propellant to
deorbit itself. To go from a 36,000 x 36,000 km circular orbit to a 36,000 x
250 km orbit (where the atmospheric drag would cause it to reenter) is a LOT
of retrograde delta-v required). There's talk of requiring enough reserve
propellant to boost to a new 'graveyard' orbit 1000 km beyond geostationary
before turning off a satellite, but it's rarely implemented.

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RP_Joe
Was still going. GOES 3 is scheduled for final decommissioning on 23 June
2016.[5]

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privong
> Was still going. GOES 3 is scheduled for final decommissioning on 23 June
> 2016.[5]

Presumably the date is for the East Coast of the US, so that's tomorrow.

