ESA’s OPS-SAT has completed its atmospheric reentry. The final successful contact with the spacecraft took place at approximately 21:30 UTC, 22 May, as the satellite passed over Australia. “So, that’s it folks. The last signals were received by the SatNOGS station VK4JBE in Australia at around 21:30 UTC last night. The telemetry gathered was very interesting, revealing almost no internal heating at this late stage but some pretty crazy dynamics as the drag component dominated. My immense thanks to the radio amateur community for enabling this!” — David Evans, OPS-SAT Space Lab manager at ESA ..read more

The final ever experiment to run on ESA’s OPS-SAT in-orbit laboratory has been completed! OPS-SAT’s final experiment was run by Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) from Greece. It took place at 19:37 UTC on 21 May, by which time OPS-SAT’s operations team was fighting hard to maintain communication with and control of the spacecraft. “The aim of our experiment was to implement direct TCP/IP connectivity between HAI’s Ground Segment and the OPS-SAT’s SEPP computer in a near-Earth (LEO) satellite mission environment. Traditionally, such missions are controlled over CCSDS-based protocols like the Sp ..read more

ESA’s first-of-its-kind research CubeSat, OPS-SAT, will come to an end tomorrow after almost five years in orbit. We currently expect the mission to complete its atmospheric reentry within a few hours of 16:00 UTC, 22 May 2024. Teams from ESA and the organisations running the final experiments on OPS-SAT are currently wrestling against the laws of physics as increasing atmospheric drag threatens to steal away control of the spacecraft at any moment. They are working night and day to wrap up the mission’s final activities and doing their very best to squeeze out the final drops of science and t ..read more

ESA’s first-of-its-kind research CubeSat, OPS-SAT, will come to an end tomorrow after almost five years in orbit. We currently expect the mission to complete its atmospheric reentry within a few hours of 16:00 UTC, 22 May 2024. The teams behind OPS-SAT and its final experiments are working night and day to squeeze out research and development value from the mission to the very end. Meanwhile, ESA is working with the radio amateurs around the world (in particular SatNOGS) to collect as much data as possible from OPS-SAT during its final orbits. If you are an amateur radio enthusiast, there is s ..read more

ESA’s OPS-SAT will undergo atmospheric reentry within May—June 2024. Since launch in 2019, the experimental CubeSat has enabled teams from companies and universities in Europe and around the world to test and validate new innovations in satellite operations that would be too risky to try out on a flagship mission. Its mission is now coming to an end: the satellite’s altitude is decreasing as it loses the battle against atmospheric drag. OPS-SAT is roughly the size and mass of a piece of aircraft carry-on luggage. So, there are no risks associated with the reentry. However, it offers a rare cha ..read more

At approximately 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) on Wednesday 21 February 2024, ESA’s ERS-2 satellite completed its atmospheric reentry over the North Pacific Ocean.  We followed the reentry before, during and after on this blog, on social media, and on the ESA website. This post offers a brief retelling of the final days of the reentry story and some previously unshared images to round off our coverage. The four images below link to background and major milestones of the ERS-2 reentry story to get you up to speed. They cover the mission, the facts, the reasoning for deorbiting the satellite ..read more

ESA’s European Remote Sensing 2 satellite (ERS-2) was recently spotted tumbling as it descends through the atmosphere. These images were captured by cameras on board other satellites in January and early February 2024 by Australian company HEO on behalf of the UK Space Agency. Read the full article on the ESA website for more information on how and why these images were taken ..read more

*This post provides live updates from ESA’s Space Debris Office on the atmospheric reentry of ESA’s ERS-2 satellite. New updates will be added at the top of this page, so check back daily for the latest.* For more information on ERS-2 and this reentry, see our ‘ERS-2 reentry – homepage’ and ‘ERS-2 reentry – frequently asked questions’ pages. Data direct from ESA’s Space Debris Office can be found here (free user account required to view). As of 12:00 CET, 5 February 2024, reentry is predicted between 16 and 22 February. *More information will be shared here shortly ..read more

The mission launched on 21 April 1995. At the time, it was the most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe. Together with the almost-identical ERS-1, it collected a wealth of valuable data on Earth’s land surfaces, oceans and polar caps and was called upon to monitor natural disasters such as severe flooding or earthquakes in remote parts of the world. ERS-2 data are still widely used today and kept accessible through ESA’s Heritage Space Programme. More information about ERS-2 mission achievements can be found here. In 2011, after 16 years of op ..read more

*This post provides live updates from ESA’s Main Control Room in Darmstadt, Germany, as engineers and operators guide Aeolus home. New updates will be added at the top of the page, so check back daily for the latest.* D ay 1: first manoeuvre tests large, low-altitude thruster firing 24 July 2023. Manoeuvre #1 successfully completed! The first Aeolus reentry manoeuvre has been successfully performed – the largest thruster firing in the mission’s five years in orbit, and more than three times the size of those executed during routine operations. Today’s thruster burns, one large and one small, i ..read more