WIRE Reenters Earth's Atmosphere

Friday, May 13th, 2011 • Feature • ipac2011-013

The Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite reentered Earth's atmosphere at about 11:50 p.m. Pacific Time, May 9, 2011, more than 12 years and 68,000 orbits after launch. The reentry occurred over northern Myanmar and resulted from the natural decay of WIRE's low-Earth polar orbit. The spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.

WIRE was a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to survey 1,000 square degrees of extragalactic sky at infrared wavelengths of 25 and 12 microns. Shortly after its launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on March 4, 1999, a malfunction caused the loss of all the cryogen, blinding the science instruments. Control of the otherwise healthy satellite was regained, and the star tracker was repurposed for asteroseismology studies of bright stars. Operations were later transferred from GSFC to Bowie State University, Maryland, for student training.

The WIRE Science Operations Center was located at IPAC. Many of the staff moved on to other IPAC projects, notably GALEX and Spitzer. WIRE might now be viewed as a steppingstone or learning experience on the way to the similar, larger, and hugely successful WISE mission; arguably the seeds for the WISE proposal effort took root while WIRE was under construction. The scientific return from mid-infrared surveys of Spitzer and WISE testify to the aims of the WIRE mission.