ESA’s fifth Earth Explorer, Aeolus was tasked with the extraordinarily challenging and pioneering feat of measuring global winds from space, using a laser.

On 30 April 2023, all nominal operations of Aeolus will conclude in preparation for a series of end of life activities.

The finishing touches to the end-of-life schedule will be made over the coming weeks and a timeline will be announced in due course. In the meantime, Aeolus will provide data as usual up to the end of operations on 30 April 2023. While no new operational data will be gathered after 30 April, the mission's existing data will still be available to users.

In this overview video, ESA's mission manager, Tommaso Parrinello, describes the successes and challenges of this amazing mission, whose impacts will live long beyond its lifetime in space.