A graveyard orbit is used when the change in velocity required to perform a de-orbit maneuver is too large. De-orbiting a geostationary satellite requires a delta-v of about, whereas re-orbiting it to a graveyard orbit only requires about. For satellites in geostationary orbit and geosynchronous orbits, the graveyard orbit is a few hundred kilometers above the operational orbit. The transfer to a graveyard orbit above geostationary orbit requires the same amount of fuel as a satellite needs for about three months of stationkeeping. It also requires a reliable attitude control during the transfer maneuver. While most satellite operators "plan" to perform such a maneuver at the end of their satellites' operational lives, through 2005 only about one-third succeeded. However, as of 2011, most recently decommissioned geosynchronous spacecraft were said to have been moved to a graveyard orbit. According to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee the minimum perigeealtitude above the geostationary orbit is: where is the solar radiation pressure coefficient and is the aspect area to mass ratio of the satellite. This formula includes about 200 km for the GEO-protected zone to also permit orbit maneuvers in GEO without interference with the graveyard orbit. Another of tolerance must be allowed for the effects of gravitational perturbations. The remaining part of the equation considers the effects of the solar radiation pressure, which depends on the physical parameters of the satellite. In order to obtain a license to provide telecommunications services in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission requires all geostationary satellites launched after March 18, 2002, to commit to moving to a graveyard orbit at the end of their operational life. U.S. government regulations require a boost,, of about 300 km. A spacecraft moved to a graveyard orbit will typically be passivated. Uncontrolled objects in a near geostationary orbit exhibit a 53-year cycle of orbital inclination due to the interaction of the Earth's tilt with the lunar orbit. The orbital inclination varies ± 7.4°, at up to 0.8°pa.
Disposal orbit
While the standard geosynchronous satellite graveyard orbit results in an expected orbital lifetime of millions of years, the increasing number of satellites, the launch of microsatellites, and the FCCapproval of large megaconstellations of thousands of satellites for launch by 2022 necessitates new approaches for deorbiting to assure earlier removal of the objects once they have reached end-of-life. Contrary to GEO graveyard orbits requiring three months' worth of fuel, large satellite networks require orbits that passively decay into the Earth's atmosphere. For example, both OneWeb and SpaceX have committed to the FCC regulatory authorities that decommissioned satellites will decay to a lower orbit — a disposal orbit—where the satellite orbital altitude would decay due to atmospheric drag and then naturally reenterthe atmosphere and burn up within one year of end-of-life.
