This week, the European Space Agency will guide its dead Aeolus wind satellite back to Earth — but not in one piece.
An illustration shows the Aeolus wind satellite over Earth. The satellite will reenter Earth's atmosphere this week.
Aeolus has been orbiting Earth since 2018, when it became the first spacecraft to measure our planet's winds from space. The mission has far outlived its planned operational lifetime of one year, but was finally shut down after almost completely exhausting its fuel in early July 2023. Since then, the spacecraft has been falling toward Earth with gathering speed.
"This will start with an initial set of maneuvers that will be executed on Monday to lower the altitude from 174 miles which the spacecraft should have by then, to 155 miles and to put it in an elliptical orbit," Escude-Cofiner said."If everything goes according to plan, this will be then followed three days later by another set of maneuvers which is intended to lower it even further from 155 miles to 93 miles altitude.
The risk of clashing with other spacecraft during maneuvers is expected to be low because Aeolus orbits Earth in a sparsely populated zone. Still, if such an encounter appears to be a threat, plans are in place to divert Aeolus' descent.
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Boomerang meteorite may be the 1st space rock to leave Earth and returnSharmila is a Seattle-based science journalist. She found her love for astronomy in Carl Sagan's The Pale Blue Dot and has been hooked ever since. She holds an MA in Journalism from Northeastern University and has been a contributing writer for Astronomy Magazine since 2017. Follow her on Twitter at Sharmilakg.
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