Yesterday, in a dual-burn reboost, ATV Edoardo Amaldi boosted the ISS, for the first time, into an orbit entirely above 400 km altitude. The burns took place at 11:45 and 15:17 CEST; the former ran for under 7 minutes while the latter ran for almost 35 minutes.

A Needed Boost – By astronaut Don Pettit 3 Apr 2012: Here is my attempt to capture a Station re-boost last weekend using the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle). Notice that as the burn progresses, a halo of exhaust accumulates that is visible when the thrusters fire for thrust corrections.

An engineering analysis of the European vessel’s propulsion system performance showed the first burn achieved its planned propulsive push (that is, the planned increase in Station speed, measured in metres/second) within 1% of the target, while the second achieved an enviable 0.5%!

As a result, there will be no need to use the back-up boost slot available on 24 August.

Amaldi‘s propulsion is performing perfectly!