The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.On 27 March 2025, Gaia’s control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre carefully switched off the spacecraft’s subsystems and sent it into a ‘retirement orbit’ around the Sun.Though the spacecraft’s operations are now over, the scientific exploitation of Gaia’s data has just begun.
Why go to so much work to ensure it can never be turned on again? What harm does it do to move the satellite to a graveyard orbit and just leave it listening?
My thought as well, seems short sighted. Bandwidth permits from ITU maybe? Risk that someone else could hijack it?