European Space Agency (ESA) reached a major milestone by completing the first controlled return of a satellite to Earth. The international organization reported that the Salsa satellite, one of the members of the Cluster quartet, re-entered the atmosphere and crashed over a remote area of the South Pacific OceanESA has adjusted the satellite’s orbit to ensure it descends far from populated areas.
According to a publication on the European Space Agency website, the Salsa (Cluster 2) satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 20:47 on September 8, 2024. direct the satellite to a remote area in case any part of the ship survives when re-entering.
Bruno Souza, head of the inner solar system operations department, said the cluster’s moons have eccentric orbits influenced by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. ESA made adjustments in January 2024after solar panels failed while crossing the Van Allen belts.
“This month, we changed Salsa’s orbit to ensure that it will experience its final steep fall from an altitude of about 110 km to 80 km in September. This gives us maximum control over where the spacecraft will be captured by the atmosphere and begin to burn up,” Souza said.
The European Space Agency said its operators kept a close eye on Salsa as it approached Earth.
ESA makes history with first controlled re-entry of satellite into atmosphere
The “directed entry” makes ESA a pioneer in this type of maneuver. The agency noted that the cluster will go down in history for helping ESA become “a world leader in sustainable space exploration.” This is remarkable given that All four satellites were launched in the 1990s.when there were no space debris regulations.
The spacecraft was designed long before the agency announced its plan to combat space debris generated by satellites and rocket components. The “Zero Waste” approach aims to limit waste production during space missions by 2030. One of the plan’s axes is related to re-entering the atmosphere or returning to orbit at a safe altitude.
“By studying how and when Salsa and the three other satellites in the cluster burn up in the atmosphere, we will learn a lot about the science of atmospheric re-entry, hopefully allowing us to apply the same approach to other satellites when they reach the end of their lifetime,” said Rolf Densing, ESA’s Director of Operations.
After Salsa’s re-entry into the atmosphere, the three remaining satellites of the cluster (Rumba, Samba, and Tango) will enter a staging mode and will not conduct any further scientific observations. Rumba will return to Earth in 2025, and Samba and Tango will do the same in 2026.
Source: Hiper Textual
