Not all satellites. Most of the satellites I’ve worked on simply turn their solar arrays into a high drag configuration if they need to make adjustments to miss something, and when they reach end of life they just turn and stay that way to deorbit. If you’re in Low earth orbit even a dead sat will deorbit in about 5-10 years.
PrematureJack t1_jd1vf75 wrote
Reply to comment by Due_Start_3597 in 10 months after its launch by SpaceX, a $10,000 satellite made by students with off-the-shelf materials and powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries, is not only working, it's demonstrating a way to reduce space junk by lughnasadh
Not all satellites. Most of the satellites I’ve worked on simply turn their solar arrays into a high drag configuration if they need to make adjustments to miss something, and when they reach end of life they just turn and stay that way to deorbit. If you’re in Low earth orbit even a dead sat will deorbit in about 5-10 years.