Aeolus: ‘Impossible satellite’ ready to fall to Earth

A British-built spacecraft is expected to fall to Earth later on Friday, after completing a transformative mission to map the planet’s winds.

The Aeolus satellite fired a laser down through the atmosphere to track the movement of air in any location, at every altitude, all around the world.

Its success means replacements are already being planned.

But the project very nearly failed to get off the ground at all – because of the difficulty in making Aeolus work.