verb
- past tense of deorbit; to remove (a spacecraft or satellite) from orbit, typically causing it to fall back to Earth or move to a different trajectory
Usage: technical; aerospace
Examples
- The space station was deorbited in a controlled manner to ensure it fell safely into the ocean.
- NASA deorbited the aging satellite after it completed its mission.
- The spacecraft was deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere during reentry.
- Engineers deorbited the defunct communications satellite to prevent space debris.
- The probe was deorbited from its lunar orbit to begin its descent to the surface.