Explanation:
It is given that the satellite and the meteorite collide completely in-elastically. Hence its momentum will be conserved but its kinetic energy will not be conserved and will move together as a single body. The collision of the meteorite and the satellite should be taken at an angle of 90, since the satellite is moving in a circular orbit and the meteorite is moving towards the earth.
Let us consider the Initial Momentum of the satellite and the meteorite to be P = Mv
where M is the mass of the meteorite as well as the satellite and v is the orbital velocity through which the satellite revolves around the earth and is the same for the meteorite too.

In the above diagram, P1 is the momentum of the satellite orbiting the earth and P2 is the momentum of the meteorite moving towards the earth. Their resultant is given by P by the laws of vector addition.
Using the law of conservation of momentum,

Initially, the satellite was orbiting around the earth with an orbital velocity of v but when the collision happened the meteorite and the satellite started moving with velocity, V = 0.707v, which signifies that the velocity decreased.
Since the Velocity after the collision is less than of orbital velocity. Hence it does not follow a circular path and travels in an elliptical orbit.