Updates ESA's ATV-2 "Johannes Kepler"

[Orbinaut Pete]

Undocking now less than 30 minutes away!

My latest NASASpaceflight article: Europe’s ATV-2 set to depart ISS to make way for Russia’s Progress M-11M <- Also covers tomorrow's Progress M-11M launch.

Follow ESA's ATV-2 blog for live undocking coverage.

 

[N_Molson]

Undocking complete. *beep*

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

It's already fading away in the distance.

 

[kevin580]

Any undocking videos?

 

[N_Molson]

Here you go :

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ztdq0A8D-A"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ztdq0A8D-A[/ame]

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Via ESA's ATV-2 blog:

Interesting news tonight! ATV2 conducted a debris avoidance manoeuvre this evening at 18:30 UT (20:30 CEST). ESA’s Mike Steinkopf, sitting at the mission director’s console position at ATV-CC this evening, sent in this note:

Earlier today, NASA flight dynamics predicted an object conjunction with a miss distance of 50m. The ATV boost (thruster burn) was planned at 1.5 m/s, and took ATV onto a completely safe orbit.

ATV has enough spare fuel on board to allow for such manoeuvres.

Also, here's some undocking images from Alexander Samokutyaev's blog at the Roscosmos website:

 

[Notebook]

Not sure how current this will be, but worth a look:

http://blogs.esa.int/atv/

more update:

http://blogs.esa.int/atv/2011/06/21/latest-predicted-impact-43-0513s-147-02w/

N.

 

[orb]

ESA: The end for ATV Johannes Kepler:

21 June 2011

Europe’s unmanned ATV space freighter plunged on command into Earth’s atmosphere today to end its mission as a spectacular shooting star over the southern Pacific Ocean. Contact with the spacecraft was lost at 20:41:39 GMT (22:41:39 CEST) at an altitude of 80 km.

{...}

Today, at 17:07 GMT (19:07 CEST), ATV fired its engines to enter an elliptical orbit leading to the second burn at 20:04 GMT (22:04 CEST), which precisely targeted its Pacific goal.

The first burn lasted for 10 min 9 sec and the second for 14 min and 9 sec.

Just before hitting the atmosphere, Johannes Kepler was commanded to begin tumbling to ensure it would disintegrate and burn up safely.

Surviving pieces such as the heavy docking adapter and main engines – designed to withstand extreme heat – struck the ocean at around 21h GMT (23h CEST). There were no hazardous materials aboard ATV.

The destructive reentry happened exactly as planned over an uninhabited area of the south Pacific, about 2500 km east of New Zealand, 6000 km west of Chile and 2500 km south of French Polynesia.

{...}

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

According to ESA's ATV-2 blog, the Re-Entry Breakup Recorder (REBR) failed to transmit any data during the ATV-2 re-entry. Reasons are unknown, and a study into the failure is underway.