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VIRTUALISATION Jules Verne exits Space Station for destruct sequence
VIRTUALISATION Jules Verne exits Space Station for destruct sequence | Jules Verne exits Space Station for destruct sequence |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Sunday, 07 September 2008 | |
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The ATV was undocked from the ISS at the aft port of the Zvezda service with the help of ISS mission controllers in Moscow, Russia, and ATV personnel at Toulouse, France. Afterwards, the Jules Verne has positioned itself in an orbit about three miles (five kilometers) below the orbit of the ISS. On September 29, 2008, about two weeks after its ISS exit, ground controllers will direct the spacecraft to perform a de-orbit burn, which will cause it to lower its orbit so it falls into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. The vehicle will be destroyed, along with waste materials loaded into its interior by the ISS Expedition 16 crewmembers, by the friction of the increasing number of air molecules in the atmosphere as it descends downward toward Earth. The 1.3-billion-euro-Jules Verne is the first ATV (of at least four) by the ESA that will visit the ISS over the next few years, bringing crewmembers additional cargo, equipment, fuel, water, oxygen, and food, removing waste products, and boosting the ISS into higher orbits when necessary. In fact, during its five-month stay at the ISS (since April 3, 2008), it boosted the station into higher orbits on five separate occasions. It was launched from an Ariane 5 rocket on March 9, 2008, from the spaceport on the coast of French Guiana. Page two contains information on the dimensions of the Jules Verne, along with quotes about its mission from an ESA official. |
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