An illustration of three of the four satellites that make up the Cluster mission to monitor Earth’s magnetic field
ESA – CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
A half-tonne satellite will be watched as it falls to Earth by scientists on a private jet, to understand more about how debris breaks up in our atmosphere.
The satellite is one of four in a constellation called Cluster run by the European Space Agency (ESA) to monitor how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the sun’s solar wind. Nicknamed Rumba, Salsa, Samba and Tango because of the way they spin like dancers, the satellites were…