Geostationary Meteorological Satellite-4 (GMS-4) Ceasing Operation

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and the
Meteorological Agency announced that the Geostationary Meteorological
Satellite-4 (GMS-4) was taken out of orbit, operations were performed
to shut down signal transmission, and taking the satellite out of
operation at 23:00 on Thursday, Feb.24, 2000.

Operations were also completed to exhaust the remaining fuel
on GMS-4. This satellite has been moved to a geostationary orbit
approximately 600 kilometers higher than the standard geostationary
orbit. An outline of this final orbit as follows:

Altitude of apogee – 36,814 km

Altitude of perigee – 36,404 km

Period – 4 hours 38 minutes

Orbit Inclination – 4.4 degrees