day later than ERS-1. ERS-2 has a repeat cycle of 35 days. ERS-2 has been operating without gyroscopes since February 2001, resulting in some degradation of the data provided by the instruments. The tape drive aboard failed on 22 June 2003, leaving the instruments operating only within visibility of a ground station. Since the tape drive failure additional ground stations have been brought online to increase the data gathering abilities of the satellite. The Wind Scatterometer and GOME were the only instruments of their kind until the launches of MetOp-A and Envisat, respectively. The successor to ERS-2 was the Envisat satellite, launched 1 March 2002. Envisat contained improved versions of many of the instruments onboard ERS-2. However, even after the launch of its successor, the operational life of ERS-2 was increased until 2011, when the decision was made to end the mission. Over a series of burns in July, August and September, ERS-2 was finally depleted of all fuel on 5 September 2011. At 13:16:38 the batteries were switched off and the satellite decommissioned. The spacecraft was left in an orbit where it will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and safely disintegrate within 25 years, in accordance with international standards. In the final stages of emptying the fuel tanks, it was estimated that they would be empty after a 40-minute burn on 2 September 2011. However, the spacecraft survived both this manoeuvre and a second 40-minute burn on 3 September. On 5 September a third burn was initiated and the fuel tanks were finally drained. See also 1991 in spaceflight 1995 in spaceflight Notes References External links ERS homepage at ESA Next ESA SAR Toolbox for viewing, calibrating and analyzing ERS 1 & 2 SAR Level 1 data and higher Earth observation satellites of the European Space Agency European Space Agency programmes Space synthetic aperture radar Earth satellite radar altimeters Spacecraft launched in 1991 Spacecraft launched in 1995 Spacecraft launched by Ariane rockets