the.com/orbital decay
gravity's slow refund policy: what goes up eventually gives everything back.
means the gradual shrinking of an orbit as drag or gravitational losses bleed away a satellite's energy until it falls.
from tracked since the earliest satellites, when engineers noticed low orbits weren't forever — thin traces of atmosphere at 200 miles up still tug hard enough to matter over months and years.
main culpritresidual atmospheric drag, even in near-vacuum
iss realityneeds regular reboosts or it would deorbit
death spiral speeddecay accelerates as altitude drops, thicker air
famous casualtyskylab fell early, scattered debris over australia