Tango, the last of ESA's four Cluster satellites, reentered Earth's atmosphere on 1 September 2026 at 21:30:31 UTC, according to the agency. It was deliberately lined up for a targeted reentry over the South Pacific Ocean, ending 26 years of operations for a mission that advanced understanding of Earth's magnetosphere.

The ROSIE airborne observation team, flying from Tonga, recorded the reentries of both Tango and Samba, the satellite that reentered on 31 August, using 29 of 30 instruments onboard its plane. The scientists tracked the satellites for about 50 seconds on average. ESA describes the campaign, across four targeted reentries, as a proven method of safe end-of-life disposal and a unique data set on the destructive reentry process.

Shortly before reentry, flight control, mission and reentry team members sent final commands to Tango. Its telemetry signal via the Kourou ground station was lost about a quarter of an hour before reentry. ESA's next reentry mission, Draco, is scheduled for launch in 2027 to record a reentry from the inside using more than two hundred sensors and four cameras.