ESA - ATV-4 Albert Einstein Mission patch.
28 Oct 2013
The Expedition 37 crew on board the ISS said goodbye to ATV Albert Einstein on 28 October 2013, with separation taking place at 09:55 CET.
ATV-4 undocking
The Expedition 37 crew onboard the station closed the hatch and said goodbye to ATV-4 "Albert Einstein" cargo ship on Oct. 28. The ATV-4 resupply vehicle arrived at the station in mid-June, delivering more than 7 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the space station crew and . It will undock from the complex on Oct. 28 and will be deorbited Nov. 2 for a destructive entry back into the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
The ATV-4 undocking was controlled by the joint ESA/CNES mission operations team at the ATV Control Centre, Toulouse, France. A controlled, destructive re-entry is planned for 2 November.
A nice day for undocking
Images above: These shots are taken from the ATV-4 undocking, leaving the International Space Station just before the orbital complex passed the terminator - passing from day to night.
What’s happening in undocking?
Here's the rough sequence of events for departure from the ISS:
- ISS Hooks Opening The ISS's mechanical hooks – holding ATV-4 in place – open. Once that happens, only ATV's own hooks are holding the vessel rigidly attached to the Russian Service Module.
- WAKE_UP: ATV avionics are switched on – Albert Einstein comes to life!
- DEMERGING Separation of the data & power links from the Russian SM to ATV-4 – Disconnection of the ISS/ATV communication bus happens about 10 min before mechanical separation.
ATV undocking
- ISS Free Drift – Station goes into ‘free drift’ mode – its attitude and orbit control system will stop making corrections to the Station’s attitude for the remaining duration of undocking.
- GO for undocking – ATV-CC/MCC-M.
- ATV-CC sends ATV 'Hooks opening' command.
- ATV Separation – first distancing impulse is provided by spring pushers on docking rings(see image above).
- Departure Manoeuvre – Thruster burn executed about 1 minute after separation.
- End of free drift – ISS returns to normal attitude control.
- ATV leaves approach ellipsoid – ATV pulls back and departs from the safety zone around the ISS to commence free flight orbiting.
ATV-4 is the heaviest payload ever launched by an Ariane rocket. The vessel also carried the most cargo by weight as well as the most individual items ever in the ATV series.
Related links:
Automated Transfer Vehicle: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/ATV
ATV Control Centre: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/ATV/ATV_Control_Centre
ATV blog: http://blogs.esa.int/atv
Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA / ATV blog / NASA.
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