A defunct satellite will fall to the Earth today in a never-before-performed set of manoeuvres.

The Aeolus satellite is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission launched in 2018 to measure the Earth’s winds from space.

The 1360-kg satellite was operating successfully for the past five years, but is now out of fuel and is returning to the Earth this week.

Planned and built before any regulations were put in place on ‘end-of-life’ disposal, the satellite was designed to return through our atmosphere naturally.

To ensure that the satellite does not pose a hazard to people or property on Earth, ESA is planning to guide the satellite through a controlled reentry into the atmosphere later today.

The reentry will begin when the satellite is at an altitude of about 93 miles. The remaining fuel on the satellite will be used to steer it into a controlled descent.

As of today, all four manoeuvres of the reentry were successfully executed and Aeolus is already skimming the top of our atmosphere, being buffeted by denser air – our planet’s protective shield – in a preview of what’s to come tonight. The satellite is now sailing at an altitude below 160 km.

The general risk from reentering satellites is already very low. For example, the risk of an individual being hit by a piece of space debris is approximately three times lower than the risk from a falling meteorite.

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