Follows Highly Successful First Mission For ATV

At the end of a flawless six-month mission Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle "Jules Verne" undocked from the International Space Station Monday at 23:29 hours CEST. The ATV has now embarked on the last leg of its journey in space, which will end with a controlled destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on September 29.

The hatches between the ISS and the ATV were closed by the Station crew on September 4, following ATV preparation for automated undocking. Once all other pre-undocking tasks had been performed, the ATV hooks were opened, detaching Europe's unmanned logistics vehicle from the ISS, with a spring mechanism pushing it slowly away.

After drifting unpowered for one minute to a distance three meters away from the Station, the ATV deployed its smaller attitude control thrusters to start its departure boost and distance itself further. Within 22 minutes of undocking, the ATV was right below the ISS at a distance of about three miles, at which point its automatic emergency systems and collision avoidance systems were disabled.

Having completed this 22 minute undocking and departure-boost operation, the ATV is now in its rephasing period, which will last just over 23 days. This covers carrying out maneuvers to lower the ATV orbit, bringing it back on the same orbital flight path as the ISS but at a certain point below and behind. This time period for carrying out these maneuvers is necessary in order to optimize fuel consumption, so that the ATV arrives at the correct point enabling its re-entry over a completely uninhabited area of the South Pacific to be viewable from the ISS, as well as from two specially-equipped observation aircraft to be deployed at monitoring locations in the region.

ESA says the ATV has had an exceptionally successful inaugural mission following its launch on March 9: a perfectly executed in-orbit test phase prior to docking; delivery of the necessary logistics supplies to the Space Station; carrying out four ISS altitude-raising reboosts to counter residual atmospheric drag; additionally performing an ISS debris avoidance maneuver on August 27, after fragments of an old Russian satellite came within the Station's vicinity.

"How the ATV has performed highlights extremely well how the benchmark of European space technology has been raised, and the wealth of expertise present in European industry", said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight. "This bodes well, not only for future ATV missions to the International Space Station, but also for developments of this kind of technology that may eventually provide Europe with an autonomous cargo return capability and independent access to space for European astronauts."

Prior to the undocking, the ISS crew spent the last few days making the final preparations, including transferring from the ATV equipment needed on the Station, loading up the ATV with Station waste and also setting up and testing equipment for ISS/ATV communications for this operation. They will now be preparing for the forthcoming arrival at the ISS of the next logistics vehicle, Russia's Progress 30P spacecraft, on September 12.

FMI: www.esa.int