ESA's plane captures a rare glimpse of spacecraft's homecoming as it reenters Earth's atmosphere

Four identical spacecraft were launched into space around a quarter century ago and recently made a comeback. The European Space Agency sent a plane to capture the reentry of the four Cluster mission satellites into the atmosphere of Earth on September 8.

"The first recorded observation of a satellite reentry from a high-speed orbit, taken from a plane in bright daylight!" stated the agency.

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The idea was to record the way in which such a spacecraft breaks up the atmosphere of Earth after facing intense friction and heat.

"Throughout history, so far about 10,000 intact satellites and rocket bodies have reentered the atmosphere," stated theagency.

"Yet we still lack a clear view on what actually happens during a reentry," it added.

Here's how the reentry of spacecraft in atmosphere of Earth looked like

The craft named "Salsa" upon reentry appeared like a bright dot above the sea surface and its reentry was intentionally carried out above the remote South Pacific Ocean - which is a region where the chances of creating damage were less.

Four identical spacecraft were deployed by the Cluster mission, undertaken byNASAand ESA, to investigate how our planet's magnetosphere interacts with the constant stream of particles released from thesun known as the solar wind.

"It even discovered the origin of 'killer electrons,' energetic particles in the outer belt of radiation surrounding Earth, that can cause havoc for satellites," stated ESA.

Before the satellites turned into derelict objects in the orbit of the Earth, ESA made manoeuvres to ensure that the spacecraft came down in a "targeted area."

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"Without intervention, the four Cluster satellites would have reentered Earth’s atmosphere naturally – but with less control over when or where this would happen," stated the agency. "Low-Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbital space junkyard," explained NASA.

"There aremillions of pieces of space junkflying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds," it added.

(With inputs from agencies)