ESA's Cluster quartet prepares for its final Tango
Two-year mission bows out after 26 thanks to some heroic engineering
The European Space Agency's Cluster quartet is getting ready for its final performance, with Tango expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere tonight at 21:30:31 UTC. Samba, which lost contact on August 31, followed suit at 21:39:38 UTC. The other two satellites, Rumba and Salsa, reentered in 2025 and 2024. The Cluster quartet's final reentries conclude a mission that surpassed even optimistic expectations, thanks to the ingenuity of engineers on the ground.
The spacecraft were launched in 2000 aboard two Soyuz rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, replacing the original set destroyed during the maiden flight of Ariane 5 in 1996. Initially designed to last five years, the mission was extended multiple times due to the continued valuable science data. However, the batteries that powered the satellites through Earth's shadow failed after about a decade, effectively ending their mission.
Despite each spacecraft dying during an uncontrolled shutdown, engineers devised workarounds to bring them back to life. After a series of hardware failures, the mission ended in 2024, with controllers halting science observations and initiating the disposal campaign. Tonight, Tango will meet its end, completing the story of a quartet that survived far longer than intended.
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