Aeolus' mission was novel in and of itself, since that had never been done before, and the satellite was praised throughout its time in orbit for the ways in which it improved weather forecasting.

When the Aeolus mission was conceived in the late 1990s, there were no guidelines for European satellites regarding space debris or the safety of their re-entry.

Aeolus' demise may pave the way for similar efforts in the future. The European Space Agency (ESA) recently performed an assisted/semi-controlled descent of its retired Aeolus, a wind-studying ...

The Aeolus mission was planned in the late 1990s, when there were no guidelines about reentries. At the time, Aeolus was designed to fall on an area of Earth that would be quite random.

Since the first days of the space program, astronauts wear a special patch specific to each mission. A small North Carolina company has designed them all since the Apollo lunar launches.

In an historic experiment, ESA has made a controlled reentry of its Atmospheric Dynamics Mission-Aeolus (ADM-Aeolus) satellite in a maneuver designed to reduce the risk of such end-of-life events ...

The last ever images of @ESA_Aeolus, just two hours before its demise👋🥲. Aeolus was in Earth orbit Earth for 4⃣ years, 1⃣1⃣ months and 6⃣ days. For 3⃣ hours at the end, a very ...

After almost five years of operation, the Doppler wind lidar instrument ALADIN on board Aeolus was shut down on July 5, 2023. Having exceeded its planned three-year-lifetime by 18 months, the ...

The flight control team sent its last command to Aeolus at 11:34 a.m. ET, after which they could no longer communicate with the satellite. Aeolus had been orbiting Earth for the past five years ...

ESA’s wind mission, Aeolus, will soon be lowered in orbit leading to its fiery reentry and burn-up through Earth’s atmosphere. ESA’s efforts to ensure a safe return go well beyond ...

Thanks to successful Aeolus mission European research and industry have taken a global leadership role in lidar technology. Consequently, the ESA Ministerial Council Conference in November 2022 paved ...