Atmospheric Re-Entry Of LVM3 M5 Upper Stage On July 30
The multi-object-tracking-radar at Sriharikota was also engaged to track the object wherever feasible, till a few orbits before its re-entry
Nellore: The upper stage (C25) of India’s Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) launched on November 2, 2025 from Sriharikota re-entered the atmosphere on July 30, 2026.
Marking the 5th operational flight of LVM3, it successfully injected the CMS-03 communication satellite into its intended Geostationary Transfer Orbit with a perigee at 170km and apogee at 29970km.
After spacecraft injection, the upper stage was passivated to limit any risks of accidental break-up, and left in a highly elliptical, 21 deg inclined GTO. It was routinely tracked by the US Space Command as an object of NORAD id 66310 and International Designator 2025-249A. ISRO’s system for safe and sustainable space operations management kept a close watch on the orbital decay of LVM3-M5 rocket body and regularly predicted its atmospheric re-entry during its final orbital phase.
The multi-object-tracking-radar at Sriharikota was also engaged to track the object wherever feasible, till a few orbits before its re-entry.
The most probable impact time was estimated to be around 12:08 UTC, July 30, 2026 in the Atlantic Ocean, as shown in the figure below.
Only a few elements like gas bottles, nozzles, and tanks, which are made of materials with very high melting points, were expected to survive the intense aerothermal heating during the re-entry.
For GTO missions, even a few minutes change in lift-off time can lead to a very large change in the orbital lifetime of the upper stage (from a few months to more than a few decades). Therefore, it has been a standard practice in ISRO to make additional considerations for the post-mission orbital lifetime of the upper stages while selecting lift-off timings for GTO missions.
For LVM3 M5, the pre-launch orbital life time estimate of the C25 stage was less than a year corresponding to the liftoff at 17:26 IST (11:56 UTC), 2 Nov 2025.
The actual residual orbital lifetime of the rocket body turned out to be upto 9 months, close to the predicted lifetime, and is fully compliant with the IADC recommended 25-year rule applicable to the lifetime of objects ending their mission in low earth orbit region.
It also meets India’s Debris Free Space Mission (DFSM) requirement, which recommends a shorter orbital lifetime of 5 years for rocket stages which pass through the heavily crowded LEO region.
The short orbital lifetime of the LVM3 M5 upper stage could be achieved through proper planning, and is highly significant in the backdrop of growing population of space objects in LEO orbits.
