Millennium Space Systems has successfully demonstrated the ability of deployable tether technology to significantly reduce the time a satellite remains on orbit after service life completion.
“Thousands of satellites will launch over the next decade, creating serious congestion in low Earth orbit,” Patrick Kelly, Ph.D., Dragracer Program Manager at Millennium Space Systems, was quoted as saying. “What we have proven is a way to safely and deliberately deorbit retired satellites.”
“If a satellite has a two-year operational life, you are looking at a big piece of space debris sticking around for potentially decades,” said Kelly.
The Terminator Tape creates additional surface area that interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere to create drag, which draws satellites back to Earth faster. The tape is deployed with a simple mechanism when a satellite is ready to de-orbit. And, because the tape is so lightweight, it has no effect on the satellite’s primary mission.
“Dragracer is the first complete demonstration of safe and rapid deorbit of a satellite by the Terminator Tape Deorbit Module,” said Robert Hoyt, president of Tethers Unlimited.
