A satellite will fall to Earth this week in a 1st-of-its-kind reentry.

This week will see a first-of-its-kind operation to guide a dead and disused satellite back to Earth safely. The mission will pave the way for the safe return of other space-based equipment in the future. 

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to help its Aeolus spacecraft officially reenter Earth's atmosphere during the evening of Friday (July 28). The procedure to bring it back down to our planet, however, begins on Monday (July 24).

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. By Monday, it should have reached an altitude of 174 miles (280 kilometers) over Earth, allowing ESA scientists to start the pioneering mission to bring Aeolus back down safely using a tiny bit of fuel that remains with the craft.

Source: www.space.com

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