The Journey of NASA's Smartest Satellite Finally Comes to an End

NASA's highly experimental Earth Observing-1 satellite mission was supposed to last just a year. It did that, and then survived 16 more--all the while testing NASA's riskiest, oddball ideas. It's been a proving ground for everything from multi- and hyperspectral imagers, to a self-piloting AI. But EO-1 is finally out of fuel, and at the end of the month the craft's operating team will close up shop. Already out of fuel, EO-1 itself will continue to slowly shuffle off its orbital coil until it burns up in Earth's atmosphere.