ExoMars aerobraking completed
Submit on Thursday, February 22nd, 2018 22:58
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter arrived at Mars in October 2016 in an initial, highly elliptical four-day orbit of about 98,000 x 200 km. Since March 2017, ESA had been conducting an aerobraking campaign, slowing the craft and lowering its orbit (to sometimes just 103 km altitude). At 1720 UTC on 20 February, ExoMars fired its thrusters for about 16 minutes to raise the closest approach to the surface to about 200 km, well out of the atmosphere.
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