[meteorite-list] Photos of ATV-4 spacecraft burning up on reentry
Robin Whittle
rw at firstpr.com.au
Tue Nov 5 20:41:27 EST 2013
This does not concern meteorites, but good photos of a large spacecraft
burning up in the atmosphere.
The ATV-4 Albert Einstein was an unmanned European spacecraft which
takes supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), uses its
booster rockets (4 x 490 Newton ~= 196kg) to elevate the ISS in its
orbit and then takes waste away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATV-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Transfer_Vehicle
I guess its mass would have been 14 to 15 tonnes when it burnt up over
the Pacific Ocean on 2nd November. Here are some photos from the ISS:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/esa_events/sets/72157637345106796/
with this information in a mouseover of the subtitle:
ESA's fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle, Albert Einstein, burnt
up on 2 November at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabited area of the
Pacific Ocean. It left the International Space Station a week
earlier with 1.6 tonnes of waste after spending five months
attached to the orbital outpost.
Each ATV mission ends with the spacecraft burning up harmlessly
in the atmosphere. This time, however, the ATV team organised a
special departure to gain valuable data on reentries.
After undocking at 09:00 GMT on 28 October, Albert Einstein was
instructed by its control centre in Toulouse, France, to perform
delicate manoeuvres over the course of five days to position
itself directly below the Station.
Astronauts on the Station observed the vessel from above as it
disintegrated.
These images from the Station was taken when Albert Einstein
was around 100 km directly below and had began its destructive
dive. It is the first view of an ATV reentry since the first,
of Jules Verne, in 2008.
ATV Albert Einstein delivered 7 tonnes of supplies, propellant
and experiments to the Space Station. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano
oversaw the unloading and cataloguing of the cargo, comprising over
1400 individual items.
- Robin
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