ATV-3 approaches the ISS for docking on 29 March (Credit: NASA)

ATV-3 approaches the ISS for docking on 29 March (Credit: NASA)

In his latest blog entry André Kuipers describes the worrying moments with ATV Edoardo Amaldo shortly after the European cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station at the end of March, as well as its orbit boosting role.

“We have an extra module on the ISS: the European cargo ship ATV Edoardo Amaldi. We were worried for a moment. Soon after docking on the 29th of March ATV was not receiving electricity from the ISS. Luckily the problem was fixed before the batteries ran down and now both systems work. Once again proof that it is handy to have back-ups for everything in space travel. In the mean time we hurried to unload all the cargo. Imagine if the electricity problem could not have been fixed… ATV would have had an unplanned departure after only a few days.”

Read more in André’s blog: ATV gives us a boost