This paper gives an outlook on what will happen to the predictability of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere in the case we no longer should have relevant measurements in the mesosphere. It shows how important global measurements in the mesosphere are for the predictability of the variability of the ionosphere and thus for our communication and navigation systems. This is particularly important because the satellites that currently provide us with observations of the mesosphere have all already far exceeded their originally planned lifetimes (e.g. SABER, MLS, ...).