Where old satellites go to die

Meteosat-7, EUMETSAT's oldest operational meteorological satellite, tomorrow begins its final journey to the great graveyard orbit in the sky. After almost 20 years of service – a remarkable feat, given its expected lifetime of five years – a series of manoeuvres will be carried out to take the satellite out of its current geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Earth, to its new and final resting place. So, what is the "graveyard orbit," why do we need one and how will Meteosat-7 get there? More

(Source: Phys.org - Apr 4)