On 2 November, ESA’s ATV-4 Albert Einstein completed its five-month mission to the ISS by reentering the atmosphere and burning up safely over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific Ocean.
ATVs are the most complex space vehicles ever developed in Europe and are the largest and most capable resupply ships to dock with the Space Station.
Albert Einstein delivered important cargo to keep the Station operating and to allow the six astronauts on the orbital outpost to perform out-of-this-world experiments.
It performed six reboosts to keep the Space Station in orbit, counteracting the effects of atmospheric drag. Without reboosts by ATV and Russia’s smaller Progress vehicles, the Station would eventually fall back to Earth!
Before its departure, astronauts loaded its pressurised module with waste material, freeing up space on the Station. The ATV-4 undocked on 28 October at 08:55 GMT and manoeuvred itself into a safe reentry trajectory about 100 km below the Station. On 2 November, at 12:04 GMT, it burnt up harmlessly in the upper atmosphere.
The next spacecraft in the series, ATV Georges Lemaître, has already arrived by boat at the European spaceport in French Guiana. Loading cargo into one of its modules will start in March next year. ATV-5’s modules will then be combined and placed on its Ariane launcher for launch at the end of June 2014.
