The first burn to lower the orbit took place the 6th July morning at 1:27 UCT. The burn was 5 minutes long and all systems worked as expected.
The last phase of de-orbitation (passivation) will start towards end of August / beginning of September, when a number of long manoeuvres will exhaust the fuel and finally the batteries and communications will be disconnected.
The science mission ended 4'th July with the orbit # 84719.
The last images were the following:
- Ice: Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier (3'rd July; for this a special manoeuvre has been done to get optimal baselines with 0.7 m)
- Ocean: Caribbean
- Land: Rome => this was the very last image right before the payload has been switched-off (click on the image above)
The final disposal altitude will be 570 km since at this altitude ESA can maintain a 1 day repeat orbit ensuring an optimal station coverage.