Monday, July 28, 2014

ESA ATV-5, Georges Lemaître, Fully Loaded and Hatch Closed

ESA’s fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle, Georges Lemaître, is now scheduled for launch to the International Space Station at 23:44 GMT on 29 July (01:44 CEST 30 July) on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

ATV-5 will deliver more than six tonnes of cargo to the Station, again breaking the record for the heaviest spacecraft launched on Ariane.

Everything has been loaded and the ferry is now sealed until it reaches the orbital outpost.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, currently on board the ISS, will be the first to open the hatch of ATV-5, Georges Lemaître, in space when he takes responsibility for the cargo as ‘loadmaster’.

Alexander will manage the unloading of 6.6 tonnes of experiments, spare parts, clothing, food, fuel, air, oxygen and water for the six astronauts living in the 'weightless' (Zero Gravity) laboratory.

ATV-5, Georges Lemaître showing the closed hatch after completion of cargo loading.

No comments:

Post a Comment