graveyard orbit

British  

noun

1. another name for dump orbit

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Example Sentences

In 2022, China’s Shijian-21 docked with a dead BeiDou satellite and dragged it to a graveyard orbit.

From MarketWatch

The Shijian-21 was sent into geosynchronous orbit in January and moved a defunct BeiDou navigation satellite to “to a high graveyard orbit above GEO,” the report said.

From Washington Times

The purpose of another rendezvous would be to install a propulsion module for guiding the telescope’s plunge into the atmosphere or boosting it into a stable, high-altitude graveyard orbit.

From Scientific American

These include ensuring there is enough propellant at the end of a satellite's life so that it can be pulled out of the sky or at the very least pushed into a graveyard orbit.

From BBC

The first is that, when a satellite reaches the end of its use period, it's common to simply "abandon the spacecraft" instead of spending extra money to propel it into a "graveyard orbit," meaning an orbital path away from other satellites.

From Salon