[meteorite-list] Photos of ATV-4 spacecraft burning up on reentry

[Graham Ensor]

thanks for posting the link...interesting to watch how space junk
disintegrates like that...great pictures.

On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 1:41 AM, Robin Whittle <rw at firstpr.com.au> wrote:
> 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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