ESA ATV Albert Einstein undocks from ISS

The European Space Agency’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) undocks from the aft port of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module. Image Credit: NASA TV

The European Space Agency’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4), also known as the “Albert Einstein,” undocked from the aft port of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module at 4:55 a.m. EDT Monday.

Its departure sets the stage for the relocation of a Soyuz spacecraft currently docked at the station and the arrival of three new crew members.

Expedition 37 Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano and Oleg Kotov, who together closed up the hatches to the ATV-4 Friday, monitored the automated departure from a control panel inside Zvezda, ready to take control of the process if needed.

Meanwhile Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin photographed the departing space freighter to capture imagery of its docking assembly and a set of sensors at the forward end of the spacecraft.

At the time of undocking, the station was orbiting about 260 miles above Kazakhstan.

Fyodor Yurchikhin

ATV-4, now filled with trash and unneeded items, fired its thrusters to back a safe distance away from the orbiting complex.

An engine firing Saturday will send it into the Earth’s atmosphere for a planned destructive re-entry over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific Ocean.

The “Albert Einstein,” named in honour of the famed German-born theoretical physicist and icon of modern science, delivered more than 7 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the orbiting complex when it docked automatically on June 15.

During its time at the station, the ATV-4 also provided an additional reboost capability for the complex, as flight controllers periodically commanded its engines to fire to adjust the station’s orbit.

The fifth and final ATV, designated the “Georges Lemaître” after the Belgian astronomer who first proposed the theory of the expansion of the universe, is scheduled to launch in mid-2014 for a six-month mission at the station.

More than 32 feet long -- about the size of a traditional London double-decker bus – the ATV is the largest and heaviest vehicle in the station’s resupply fleet.

The departure of ATV-4 clears the way for Parmitano, Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg to relocate their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft from its docking port on the Rassvet module to the newly vacated Zvezda port on Nov. 1.

JAXA Launches Talking 'Robot Astronaut' Kirobo In HTV-4

A Japanese H-2B rocket launches the HTV-4 (Kounotori 4) robotic cargo ship toward the International Space Station on Aug. 4, 2013 Japan Standard Time (Aug. 3, 2013 EDT/GMT) from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

Credit: NASA TV/JAXA

Call it one giant leap for robot kind: A small talking robot launched into space aboard a Japanese cargo ship Saturday (Aug. 3) to keep astronauts company on the International Space Station.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the humanoid Kirobo "robot astronaut" into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as part of nearly 3.5 tons of supplies and equipment to resupply the space station's six-person crew.

Kirobo was put through a series of zero-gravity and other safety tests before it was deemed ready for flight. Image posted June 27, 2013.

Credit: Kibo Robot Project

Kirobo was packed inside Japan's unmanned HTV-4 (Kounotori 4) cargo ship when it launched into orbit atop the country's H-2B rocket at 3:48 p.m. EDT (1948 GMT), though it was early Sunday morning (Aug. 4) Japan Standard Time at the time of liftoff. The HTV-4 spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Aug. 9.

The Kirobo space robot is a diminutive mechanical person just 13 inches (34 centimeters) tall built to converse with astronauts on long space voyages.

The robot, and its ground-based counterpart Mirata, are part of the Kibo Robot Project to study human-robot interaction technology.

Kirobo speaks Japanese and is expected to talk to JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata when he arrives at the space station in November.

Kibo, which means "hope" in Japanese, is the name of Japan's research laboratory module aboard the International Space Station. The name of Kirobo is a merging of Kibo and robot, project officials have said.

Kirobo will take part in the first robot-to-human conversation with veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata when they are both onboard the space station

ESA Ariane-5 Launch picture

Arianespace's unmanned Ariane 5 rocket, carrying the automated transfer vehicle (ATV) Albert Einstein in French Guiana. 

The ATV will resupply the International Space Station with 14,500 pounds of propellant, food, experiments, water and oxygen

Picture: Getty Images

ESA ATV-4: European cargo freighter Albert Einstein separates from Ariane-5 launcher

Europe's heaviest-ever cargo carrier to the International Space Station successfully separated from its rocket launcher an hour after liftoff on Wednesday to start a 10-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Albert Einstein was rocketed into space from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 launcher at 6:52:11 pm local time (21:52:11 GMT).

It separated as planned on reaching an altitude of 260 kilometres (160 miles).

"ATV Albert Einstein has separated from our launcher," Stephane Israel, chief executive of satellite launch firm Arianespace announced at the control centre in Kourou.

The ATV-4 is ferrying a record cargo of 6.6 tonnes to the ISS—food, fuel, water, oxygen, science experiments and special treats for the orbiting crew.

The robot freighter must now deploy its four energy-generating solar panels to start its autonomous navigation, guided by starlight, to the space station.

It is set to dock with the ISS on June 15 at an altitude of 400 kilometres (250 miles) above the planet—at a speed of some 28,000 kilometres (18,000 miles) per hour.

ESA set for record-breaking Ariane 5 ES launch carrying ATV-4

Nearly 40 years ago, European countries worried by US and Soviet dominance of space gave the green light to the first Arianespace rocket, a small launcher capable of hoisting a satellite payload of just 1.8 tonnes—the equivalent mass of two small cars.

On Wednesday, the fifth and mightiest generation of Arianes is set to take a whopping 20.2 tonnes into orbit, a cargo craft the size of a double-decker bus and a record for Europe, proud engineers say.

The payload is the fourth cargo delivery by the European Space Agency (ESA) to the International Space Station (ISS), bringing food, water, oxygen, scientific experiments and special treats to the orbiting crew.

An Ariane 5 ES is scheduled to blast off from ESA's base at Kourou in French Guiana at 6:52 pm (2152 GMT) Wednesday, taking aloft an Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4), a robot space truck dubbed the Albert Einstein.

Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4)

The cargo craft will carry almost seven tonnes of dry and fluid cargo for its five-month mission.

About an hour after liftoff, somewhere over New Zealand, the ATV, some 10 metres (33 feet) long, will detach from the rocket's upper stage and then deploy its four energy-generating solar panels and navigate autonomously, guided by starlight, to the space station.

It will dock with the ISS on July 15 at an altitude of about 400 kilometres (250 miles) above the planet.

Bart Reijnen

"By then it has a velocity of 28,000 kilometres (18,000 miles) per hour, and has to fly to a destination (the docking mechanism) about 60 cm (23 inches) in width," said Bart Reijnen, head of orbital systems at the EADS corporation's Astrium space company which built the lifeline craft.

"It has to fly there fully autonomously and dock with this target of 60 cm with a precision of six cm (2.4 inches). That is something that might be difficult to imagine."

The craft has enough fuel to make three docking attempts if something were to go wrong during the final approach, said Jean-Michel Bois, ATV operations manager in Toulouse, France, from where the vessel's flight path will be monitored.

In the case of a failed attempt, the ATV would retreat from the ISS and go into a different orbit, returning two days later to try again.

This has never happened, said Bois, adding: "I cross my fingers."

The Albert Einstein will boast the largest assortment of goods yet delivered to the ISS—a total of 1,400 individual items that include everything from pyjamas and toothbrushes to peanut butter, lasagne and tiramisu for its six astronauts.

Apart from several months' worth of food, the craft carries 4.8 tonnes of fuel needed to dock with the ISS and give it a boost into higher orbit with its onboard engines.

This is necessary because the ISS is in a low Earth orbit and encounters atmospheric resistance which causes it to fall towards our planet at a rate of about 100m (300 feet) per day.

ATVs can also push the ISS out of the way of oncoming space debris.

ESA is contracted to provide five ATVs as its contribution to the ISS, a US-led international collaboration.

ESA's ATV-4 Mission Manager Alberto Novelli (right) sitting with Astrium's ATV Programme Manager Gilles Debas (left) in the Jupiter control room at Kourou on 29 May 2013 during the dress rehearsal for ATV-4 launch.

The three previous missions have performed flawlessly, muting criticism of the billion-euro ($1.3-billion) development cost.

The Albert Einstein will carry 800 kg (1,760 pounds) of propellant to be pumped into the ISS itself, as well as more than 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) of water and 100 kilos of oxygen, according to Astrium.

And it will bring a scientific experiment designed to test the behaviour of emulsions—a mixture of liquids that do not blend, like mayonnaise—in weightless conditions.

The ATV's pressurised cabin will provide welcome extra space for the ISS crew—Americans Chris Cassidy and Karen Nyberg, Russians Fyodor Yurchikhin, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and Italian Luca Parmitano.

After completing its mission, the ATV-4 will undock from the ISS filled with about six tonnes of garbage and human waste, and burn up over the Pacific.

Soyuz Progress 49 Cargo Freighter Undocks from ISS

An unmanned Russian Soyuz Progress 49 cargo spacecraft left the International Space Station early Monday, making way for the next Progress space freighter, NASA said.

The ISS Progress 49 resupply ship, which spent more than five months attached to the station's Zvezda service module, was undocked at 8:02 a.m. EDT, the space agency reported.

After firing its thrusters to slowly move away from the ISS, Progress 49 will re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sunday and will burn up over the Pacific Ocean, officials said.

Its departure clears the way for the arrival of the ISS Progress 51 cargo craft that will ferry more than 3 tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory.

Progress 51 is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan April 24 and dock with the station two days later, NASA said.