So long… and thanks for all the oxygen ESA’s ATV Edoardo
Amaldi’s time is near. Next week the spacecraft will undock from
the International Space Station and burn up in Earth’s
atmosphere, its hugely successful mission coming to an end six
months after launch. ATV Edoardo Amaldi will undock during the
night of 25/26 September, and, just 24 hours later, will be
commanded to perform a controlled destructive reentry high over
an uninhabited area of the South Pacific. Automated Tranfer
Vehicles (ATV) supply the Space Station with all the essentials
to keep Earth’s only permanent microgravity laboratory operating
smoothly. Edoardo Amaldi, ESA’s third cargo ship in the series,
delivered about 3400 kg of oxygen, air, water, equipment and
food to the astronauts orbiting our planet. ATVs are the largest
cargo ferries to visit the Space Station and Edoardo Amaldi was
the most heavily packed ATV with dry cargo to date. Each day,
the Space Station falls back to Earth by a tiny amount, and
every so often needs a push to r