deorbiting

Again, no one was injured, but it showed the need for better deorbiting technologies for unmanned spacecraft.

Following the intentional deorbiting of Mir on March 23, 2001, the ISS became the only space station in orbit around Earth.

"The Mir has lived a wonderful life and must end it in a graceful way," Mr. Koptev said in endorsing the controlled deorbiting of the station.

On 8 February 2001, a protest against the deorbiting of the station was held in Moscow, and a petition was subsequently sent to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

This article primarily addresses the process of controlled reentry of vehicles which are intended to reach the planetary surface intact, but the topic also includes uncontrolled (or minimally controlled) cases, such as the intentionally or circumstantially occurring, destructive deorbiting of satellites and the falling back to the planet of "space junk" due to orbital decay.