However, ESA went above and beyond for Aeolus and attempted a new way of assisting its reentry to make it even safer.Ī team of spacecraft engineers, flight dynamics experts and space debris specialists at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Germany used the satellite’s remaining fuel to carry out a series of burns to lower Aeolus and place it into the best position to reenter. “Every team involved, from the Aeolus mission team to mission control, space debris and industry, has achieved something truly special,” Parrinello added.Īfter running out of fuel and without intervention, Aeolus would have reentered Earth’s atmosphere naturally within a few weeks from now, but with no control over where this would happen. “This pioneering reentry was a monumental task faced with determination, skill and effort to make space safer and more sustainable,” Tommaso Parrinello, Aeolus and CryoSat ESA Mission Manager wrote on Twitter. The reentry comes after a series of complex manoeuvres that lowered Aeolus’ orbit from an altitude of 320 km to just 120 km to reenter the atmosphere and burn up.Ĭrucially, these manoeuvres positioned Aeolus so that any pieces that may not have burned up in the atmosphere would fall within the satellite’s planned Atlantic ground tracks. It has been hailed as one of ESA’s most successful Earth observation missions. Launched in August 2018 to monitor Earth's winds, the 1,360 kilograms satellite surpassed scientific expectations and exceeded its planned life in orbit.
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