First image of Salsa’s reentry

Yesterday, Salsa reentered at 18:47 UTC / 20:47 CEST and completed the first-ever targeted reentry safely over the South Pacific Ocean. Now, we can confirm the successful observation of the reentry by the airborne observation campaign with this image.

The picture tells a story. Find out more in this blog post as we end the live reporting here.

Sunday 8 September, 21:35 CEST

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.

As the plane is three hours away from Easter Island and there is no connection possible at the moment, it seems we have to wait patiently once more.

We’ll be back tomorrow with an update when we get more information from the reentry science team on board the plane.

Thank you for following along the adventure with us today as we said goodbye to the first of the four hugely successful Cluster satellites.

Sunday 8 September, 20:47 CEST

Right about now we expect Salsa to have taken the plunge into Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in under a minute.

Farewell, Salsa! Thank you for your service!

Sunday 8 September, 20:39 CEST

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.

Just now, the Cluster operations team successfully listened one final time for Salsa via the Estrack ground station in Kourou.

The communication with the Cluster satellite Salsa has now reached its end.

Sunday 8 September, 17:05 CEST

The reentry science team led by Astros Solutions are on their way to attempt to witness the reentry live from a plane.

They will now have to fly for three hours to get there after taking off from Easter Island, the price to pay for the fact that the targeted reentry location was chosen precisely because of its remoteness.

Their local time is UTC-5 hours, so it will be 13:47 in the afternoon there when Salsa reenters (and 20:47 CEST here in Europe), which means that any video footage will be shot against a bright daylight sky, making the reentry more difficult to see.

As the in-flight connectivity will be extremely limited, we might have to wait until tomorrow for any results to come in.

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Sunday 8 September, 16:00 CEST

Today is the day Salsa, as the first of the four ESA Cluster satellites, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in an uncontrolled ‘targeted reentry’.

The time of reentry will be 18:47:36 UTC / 20:47:36 CEST, with an uncertainty of only 4 seconds either way.

A team of reentry scientists are attempting to observe the reentry live from a plane, in an observation experiment to collect rare data on how and when a satellite breaks up, which can be used to make satellite reentries safer and more sustainable in the future.

If any part of Salsa survives the violent process, it will safely splash down in a remote stretch of the South Pacific Ocean.

Stay tuned on this page for updates (newest at the top). We will also be sharing updates on @esa_Cluster, @esaoperations and @esascience on X.