De-orbiting at a low orbit is often showing that without fuel and commanding, the satellite's orbit will degrade and it will burn-up within a few years (or even 25 years) due to the very minimal drag of the atmosphere that exists to some extent to thousands of km. Deliberately moving down faster is common, and deliberately moving satellites very far away to a "graveyard orbit" is also common.

Deploying sails to increase drag has been tested a few times in real missions, and is a common theme for university satellite projects and space-industry start-ups.