Saying goodbye to Rumba

Rumba, the second of four Cluster satellites, reentered the atmosphere on 22 October 2025. Rumba’s dance around Earth has ended after its 'targeted reentry' into the atmosphere over a remote corner of the South Pacific Ocean took place as predicted at 20:59 CEST.

During the months before its reentry, an observation campaign traced Rumba through the skies. Aside from partner organisations, this also included ESA planetary defence experts normally scanning the skies for asteroids. They observed Rumba from ESA's Optical Ground Station on October 21st 2025, between 00:20 and 00:24 UTC.

In this GIF, the satellite is kept still in the centre, with the stars seemingly moving in the background. 

The last two Cluster satellites, Samba and Tango, will reenter about 24 hours apart in 2026. ESA is sending a plane filled with scientists and instruments to observe the reentries of Samba and Tango from below and learn as much as possible from Cluster's last gift to reentry science. The precise prediction of the time and place of targeted reentries offers a unique opportunity to study a reentry in detail as it happens.

The airborne observation campaign will also help prepare a similar plane campaign to observe ESA's Draco reentry mission that will also observe the fiery reentry from the inside, saving the valuable data in a capsule made to withstand the inferno.