ADM-Aeolus on 22 August 2018 on a Vega rocket from French Guiana at 18:20 local time. ESA's Living Planet Programme: ADM-Aeolus Aeolus, or, in full, Atmospheric Dynamics Mission Aeolus, is an Earth observation satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space that was launched on 22 August 2018. ADM-Aeolus is the first satellite with equipment capable of performing global wind-component-profile observation and will provide much-needed information to improve weather forecasting. Aeolus is the first satellite capable of observing what the winds are doing on Earth, from the surface of the planet and into the stratosphere 30 km high. The orbiter was named
Pleiades (Greek mythology) or the loss of their siblings, the Hyades. In turn Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky. There these seven stars formed the star cluster known thereafter as the Pleiades. The Greek poet Hesiod mentions the Pleiades several times in his "Works and Days". As the Pleiades are primarily winter stars, they feature prominently in the ancient agricultural calendar. Here is a bit of advice from Hesiod: The Pleiades would "flee mighty Orion and plunge into the misty deep" as they set in the West, which they would begin to do