ESA's ATV successfully undocks from International Space Station (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Press Release No. 36-2008
Paris, France 5 September 2008

ESA's ATV successfully undocks from International Space Station

At the end of a flawless six-month mission, Jules Verne, Europe's first
Automated Transfer Vehicle, undocked from the International Space Station
today at 23:29 hours CEST [2129 UTC]. The ATV has now embarked on the last
leg of its journey in space, which will end with a controlled destructive
re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on 29 September.

The hatches between the ISS and the ATV were closed by the Station crew on 4
September following ATV preparation for automated undocking. Once all other
pre-undocking tasks had been performed, the ATV hooks were opened, detaching
Europe's unmanned logistics vehicle from the Station, with a spring
mechanism pushing it slowly away. After drifting unpowered for one minute to
a distance three metres away from the Station, the ATV deployed its smaller
attitude control thrusters to start its departure boost and distance itself
further. Within 22 minutes of undocking, the ATV was right below the ISS at
a distance of about 5 km, at which point its automatic emergency systems
(which can initiate a Station collision avoidance manoeuvre in the unlikely
event of this being necessary) were disabled.

Having completed this 22 minute undocking and departure-boost operation, the
ATV is now in its rephasing period, which will last just over 23 days. This
covers carrying out manoeuvres to lower the ATV orbit, bringing it back on
the same orbital flight path as the ISS but at a certain point below and
behind. This time period for carrying out these manoeuvres is necessary in
order to optimise fuel consumption, so that the ATV arrives at the correct
point enabling its re-entry over a completely uninhabited area of the South
Pacific to be viewable from the ISS, as well as from two specially-equipped
observation aircraft to be deployed at monitoring locations in the region.

The ATV has had an exceptionally successful inaugural mission following its
launch on 9 March: a perfectly executed in-orbit test phase prior to
docking; delivery of the necessary logistics supplies to the Space Station;
carrying out four ISS altitude-raising reboosts to counter residual
atmospheric drag; additionally performing an ISS debris avoidance manoeuvre
on 27 August after fragments of an old satellite came within the Station's
vicinity; and currently loading up with a cargo of dispensable Station items
and waste. The ATV has truly demonstrated all its key capabilities, and
more.

"How the ATV has performed highlights extremely well how the benchmark of
European space technology has been raised, and the wealth of expertise
present in European industry," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA's Director of
Human Spaceflight. "This bodes well, not only for future ATV missions to the
International Space Station, but also for developments of this kind of
technology that may eventually provide Europe with an autonomous cargo
return capability and independent access to space for European astronauts."

At the ATV Control Centre located at the French Space Agency CNES in
Toulouse, it has been a busy past few days for the joint ESA/CNES team,
testing communication links with the spaceship, updating ATV system
parameters and defining the orbital profile the ATV will take on its journey
back into the Earth's atmosphere. Prior to the undocking, the ATV-CC also
had the responsibility of activating all the relevant ATV primary and backup
systems and giving the undocking command.

"Even though our schedule has been very busy at the ATV Control Centre, I
couldn't have wished for a better mission," said Herve Come, ESA's ATV Jules
Verne Lead Mission Director. "All the systems have performed exceptionally
well throughout the whole mission and continue to do so, which has allowed
us to extend operations by a month. I should like to express my gratitude to
all the ATV-CC staff and to everyone else involved in making this mission a
success. And in just over three weeks, we will be looking forward to the ATV
2 mission in 2010."

Prior to the undocking, the ISS crew spent the last few days making the
final preparations, including transferring from the ATV equipment needed on
the Station, loading up the ATV with Station waste and also setting up and
testing equipment for ISS/ATV communications for this operation. They will
now be preparing for the forthcoming arrival at the ISS of the next
logistics vehicle, Russia's Progress 30P spacecraft, on 12 September.

For more information:

ESA - Media Relations Office
Communication and Knowledge Department
Tel: +33 1 5369 7299
Fax: +33 1 5369 7690
Email: media @ esa.int

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