June 20, 2013

ATV-4 docked with ISS

The 4th European cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the Russian Zvezda module of the ISS Saturday 15 June, just after 16:00 CET. The station crew can now begin the task of unloading equipment, food and oxygen.

A new module of the ISS

A new module was attached to the ISS when the ATV-4 Albert Einstein docked this Saturday 15 June just after 16:00 CET. The six-member station crew will now be entering the cargo spacecraft over the next few days.

Besides resupplying the ISS, the ATV-4 will be used several times to boost the station’s orbit, whichinevitably decays. It will also be called into action if the station needs to perform debris avoidance manoeuvres or to assist rendezvous with other docking resupply craft.

Once it has completed its mission in october 2013, the ATV-4 will be loaded with waste from the station and guided from the control centre at CNES in Toulouse to burn up in the atmosphere over an uninhabited zone in the Southern Pacific.

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Docking replay

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