ATV Johannes Kepler burns up 2 days after undocking from space station

Add to My Stories Share The European Space Agencys second Automated Transfer Vehicle last night deliberately self-destructed in Earth's atmosphere.The ten-tonne ATV Johannes Kepler ferry - otherwise known as ATV-2 - burned up on re-entry in a controlled dive over the South Pacific.It had taken 1.3tonnes of rubbish from the International Space Station after spending almost four months docked in orbit.

Self-destruction: An artist's impression of the ATV Johannes Kepler ferry burning up on re-entry in a controlled dive over the South Pacific last night

Only a few hardy pieces of the craft survived and splashed into the uninhabited ocean at around 21.00 GMT.The area's air and sea traffic were warned in advance and a no-fly zone was erected to prevent any accidents.

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ATV-2 ad delivered about seven tonnes of much-needed supplies to the ISS, including 1170kg of dry cargo, 100kg of oxygen, 851kg of propellants to replenish the station tanks, and 4535kg of fuel for the ferry itself to boost the outposts altitude and make other adjustments.During the hectic mission, two Nasa space shuttles and Japans HTV cargo carrier visited the station, along with two Progress and Soyuz spacecraft. These required several changes of station altitude, mostly controlled by the ATVs thrusters.ATV-2s last important task was to give the stations orbit a big boost. One important sequence was performed on 12 June, another on 15 June and the last one on Friday.The combined effect of these manoeuvres was to raise the stations orbit to around 235 miles.

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Mid-m ission: ATV-2 docked at the International Space Station, where it stayed for four months

ATV-2 had taken 1.3tonnes of rubbish from the ISS. It had delivered seven tonnes of much-needed supplies to the orbiting outpostThe craft had undocked from the ISS on Monday afternoon, when its thrusters gently increased the distance from the outpost.On Tuesday afternoon, the ATV fired its engines twice to descend from orbit.The first burn dropped it towards Earth while the second directed it precisely towards its Pacific target.Hitting the upper atmosphere, the vehicle tumbled, disintegrated and burned. The remains struck the ocean at around 21.00 GMT.

Confident: Mission directors Kris Capelle (left) and Mike Steinkopf photographed just before ATV-2 burned up on re-entrySome aspects of a controlled destructive entry are still not well known, so ATV-2s last moments will be recorded by a prototype black box.The Re-entry Break-up Recorder gathered measurements on the location, temperature, pressure and altitude of the vehicles break-up before ejecting.Once it reached an altitude of about 11miles, it transmitted the information via the Iridium sat-phone system.
With this last phone call home, Johannes Kepler - dubbed 'Johannes Kepler' in honour of the visionary 17thcentury German astronomer and mathematician - would have been productive right to the very end of a fruitful mission.