First ‘directed reentry’ into the atmosphere of a satellite

September 9 () –

ESA announced the first ‘directed re-entry’ into the atmosphere of a satellite, one of the four components of the Cluster quartet that safely splashed down in a remote area of ​​the South Pacific Ocean.

The spaceship, known as ‘Salsa’re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 18:47 UTC on 8 September in an area deliberately chosen to avoid any damage.

According to ESA, The now-completed Cluster mission has not only provided invaluable data on how the Sun interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field for more than two decades, but its re-entry “marks an important milestone for sustainable space exploration.”

The return to Earth follows an adjustment of Salsa’s orbit in January 2024 to target a region as far away from populated areas as possible. This ensured that any part of the spacecraft that survived the return would fall into the open ocean.

Over the past days, weeks and months, ESA spacecraft operators closely followed Salsa as it approached Earth, slightly adjusting the spacecraft’s trajectory just once to keep it on track.

For 24 years in space, Cluster has sent back valuable data on how the sun interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, which helps us better understand and forecast potentially hazardous space weatheraccording to the European Space Agency.