There is a fire that is threatening to consume a spaceship from Europe. A spacecraft that weighs 1,360 kg and was sent into orbit around the Earth five years ago is currently on a collision course with the planet. After successfully completing its original mission in orbit, which lasted for three years, the satellite will be destroyed in a massive explosion when it reenters the atmosphere of Earth.
The Earth Explorer scientific mission Aeolus was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a demonstration of the agency’s superior space technology. As a result of the mission’s study, Aeolus became one of the ESA’s weather satellites with the greatest impact.
A European satellite weighing 1,360 kg will crash to Earth in a fiery explosion.
The spacecraft’s science operation was shut down on April 30 of this year, and since then, its components have been put into a special mode to carry out end-of-life duties that will contribute to the preparation of the Aeolus-2 follow-up mission.
When the death dive begins, the European Space Agency will give Aeolus the instruction to progressively lower its altitude from its present height of 320 kilometers to a height of 280 kilometers. After that, the altitude will continue to be steadily reduced until it reaches 150 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
According to experts, the spaceship will be destroyed by combustion when it reaches a height of around 80 kilometers.
According to the space agency, engineers carefully studied how to place Aeolus in the atmosphere of the Earth to target large ocean seas during reentry. This considerably reduced the amount of land that tiny fragments may fall across throughout the process.