European satellite Salsa makes fiery plunge into Earth’s atmosphere in first-ever ‘targeted’ re-entry

Satellite’s successful targeted reentry makes it a ‘pioneer’ in mitigating the global space debris problem

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) pioneering Salsa satellite made a fiery descent into the Earth’s atmosphere on Monday after spending over two decades studying space weather.

Salsa plunged into the atmosphere at about 6.45pm UT, the ESA said in a post on X.

The satellite’s successful targeted reentry makes it a “pioneer” in mitigating the global space debris problem, proving that such manoeuvers can help prevent space probes from contributing to junk in orbit around Earth.

“A few minutes ago, the Cluster operations team successfully listened one final time for Salsa via the Estrack ground station in Kourou. Communication with the satellite has now reached its end,” the space agency said.

European satellite makes fiery reentry to Earth after 24 years in space (ESA)

The pioneering satellite was part of a quartet called Cluster, which also included Rumba, Samba and Tango launched 24 years ago to study space weather events such as solar storms.

Data from the satellite quartet has helped scientists better understand Earth’s powerful magnetic shield, the magnetosphere, which makes the planet a unique habitable world.

“For over two decades, Cluster has shown us time and time again how important the magnetosphere is in shielding us from the solar wind,” Cluster mission manager Philippe Escoubet said.

“It has watched the effects of solar storms to help us better understand and forecast space weather.”

The satellites, launched in 2000, were initially planned only for a two-year mission, but the “impressive and world-changing science” they helped conduct made ESA keep the cluster going.

“It’s an emotional day for the teams that have worked on keeping Cluster going for the last 24 years, lasting way beyond the originally planned mission duration of two years,” ESA noted.

Clouds over the South Pacific Ocean as the reentry science team travel to witness Salsa’s reentry (ESA)

The satellite’s return marks the first-ever “targeted” re-entry for a satellite.

It plunged through the planet’s atmosphere, burning up completely “in under a minute”, at a specific time over a sparsely populated region near Easter Island in the South Pacific, the space agency said.

“Back in January we tweaked Salsa’s orbit to make sure that on 8 September it experiences its final steep drop from an altitude of roughly 110km to 80km,” Cluster operations manager Bruno Sousa said.

“With the reentry complete, we’re hoping to learn more soon about the results of an airborne observation experiment,” the ESA said.

ESA illustration showing effects of space weather (ESA)

Using data obtained from Salsa, scientists hope to be able to predict even better the time and location of satellite reentries in the future.

“Now that the reentry has taken place, we’re hoping to be able to learn more from the reentry science team about the results of the airborne observation experiment,” the ESA said.