ADM-Aeolus

Aeolus, a European Space Agency satellite, was the first to measure wind profiles around the whole globe, using a single laser instrument, ALADIN, that bounced ultraviolet pulses off the air to read wind speed from the surface up to about 30 km. The data fed weather forecast models.

It worked for five years against a planned 36 months. In July 2023 ESA used its last propellant for the first assisted reentry of a satellite, steering it down on 28 July so that any surviving debris would fall in remote ocean.