Now’s Your Chance To Glimpse A Satellite Crashing Back To Earth

Space explorers are running into a real issue right now, what do they do with all the junk floating above the Earth? Currently, there are thousands of retired satellites, chunks of space debris and other atmospheric junk just floating there, getting in the way of new launches and even threatens life back on dry land. Now, the European Space Agency is going to try and control a Satellites crash back to earth.

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The satellite in question is the defunct Aeolus spacecraft, which Space.com reports has been monitoring the Earth’s winds for the past five years. Now, it’s out of service and ready to be removed from orbit.

To bring the craft back to Earth, engineers from the ESA have been gradually lowering the craft out of its orbit at about 200 miles above the Earth. The craft has slowly been dropping lower and lower at a rate of around 0.62 miles per day. As Space.com reports:

“By Monday, the craft should have reached an altitude of 174 miles over Earth. The initial maneuvers will lower Aeolus to 155 miles to put it in an elliptical orbit around the planet.

“The final maneuver will happen on Friday (July 28), when the altitude of Aeolus will be further reduced to around 62 miles over Earth. Within five hours of that final maneuver on Friday evening, the re-entry of Aeolus will occur.”

When the defunct satellite crashes back to Earth, scientists estimate the just 20 percent of the craft will actually make it through the atmosphere. The rest of Aeolus will instead burn up on re-entry and be broken apart.

Once through the atmosphere, the ESA says that the satellite will come down over the Atlantic Ocean. Along its final journey, Aeolus will be tracked by radar monitoring systems on the ground, which Space.com says will allow the space agency “to continue guiding it.” After it safely crashes into the ocean, the ESA will make no attempt to recover the remains of the craft, and it will instead be left to the fishes.

But if scientists aren’t going to recover the craft, what’s the point of controlling its descent in this manner? Well, it’s all about finding an effective way to bring back the thousands of chunks of space junk that are currently floating about the Earth. It’s estimated that there are currently around 2,000 retired spacecraft in orbit, so bringing them safely back to terra firma in this way would be a a great way to clear up the cosmos a little.