Space News reports that China’s docking technology test satellite Shijian-21, having completed its own rendevous testing with a dummy satellite while in an eight degree inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit (GSO), was moved in late December 2021 to rendezvous and dock with the Beidou-2 G2 navigation satellite. This was in a slightly elliptical GSO at a similar inclination. Then on 22 January 2022, Shijian-21 used an engine burn moved itself and the Beidou-2 G2 to a “graveyard” orbit, some 300 km above the standard 36,000 km geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) orbital arc. Then on 26 January the spacecraft separated, with Shijian-21 leaving the Beidou-2 G2 to return itself back to a standard GSO.
