After 5 months attached to the International Space Station, ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, Edoardo Amaldi, will plunge into the atmosphere over the South Pacific during the night of 25 to 26 September [delayed to 28.09 – Ed.] 2012.

The Edoardo Amaldi mission was the third flight of this space freighter resupplying and servicing the orbital complex. For ESA and its international partners all the mission objectives, and more, were fully achieved, and thoughts have now immediately turned to the next ATV flight set for spring 2013.