What makes this re-entry different is that it was carefully guided down from an altitude of 130,000 km (81,250 miles) to burn up safely over a carefully selected area in the South Pacific, if all goes according to plan.
Salsa will be the second satellite to meet its end in a planned and maneuvered “guided return,” following the return of the European Space Agency’s Aeolus weather satellite last year.
Such a return could help satellite operators prevent debris from floating in orbit or falling to Earth over unexpected, populated areas.
The Salsa satellite is part of a group of four satellites called a Cluster. Salsa’s three companions are named after the dances rumba, tango and samba.
Since 2000, the four satellites have been monitoring the Earth’s magnetic field.
When Cluster was first launched, its mission was supposed to last only two years. Instead, its satellites are still intact and sending back valuable scientific data nearly a quarter of a century later. Unfortunately, Cluster’s days are now numbered.
Had ESA decommissioned Cluster in 2002 as planned, the four satellites might have been left to drift on their own. But the spectre of rapidly accumulating space debris means ESA wants to take a more cautious approach to its older spacecraft.
“By studying how Salsa burns up, which parts might survive, for how long and in what condition, we will learn a lot about how to build ‘debris-free’ satellites,” Tim Flohrer, head of ESA’s Space Debris Office, said in a statement.
More than just ensuring that old satellites don’t contaminate low Earth orbit, reentry guidance allows operators to more precisely control where disabled spacecraft fall to Earth.
It is worth noting that after Salsa re-enters, its three companions are also scheduled to suffer similar ends. The Rumba satellite will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in 2025, followed by Tango and Samba in 2026.
Source: Space
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2024-08-29 17:09:11
