Cluster operations team oversees Salsa's last dance

The Flight Control Team for ESA's Cluster mission inside Cluster's control room at ESA's ESOC mission operations centre. The team was lead by Beatriz Abascal (image centre, front row), under the responsibility of the Cluster Spacecraft Operations Manager, Bruno Sousa (image centre, back row).

Having spent 24 years in orbit exploring interactions between the Sun and Earth, the veteran Cluster mission is now coming to an end. The first of the four satellites in the Cluster quartet, ‘Salsa’, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere in September 2024. This January, the operations team carried out a series of manoeuvres to ensure this reentry will take place over a sparsely populated region in the South Pacific.