We got a quick confirmation from ESA’s ATV-4 Mission Manager Alberto Novelli on how Albert Einstein – at 20 235kg – weighs in as the heaviest spacecraft ever lifted by Ariane – more so than any of the three previous ATVs. Alberto wrote:
It’s important not to mix up the weight of cargo with the overall weight of the ATV.
Inside view taken 9 March; water pump is installed, hardmounted on a rack adapter plate Credit: ESA/C. Beskow
In terms of cargo, we are slightly less than ATV-3 (on the order of 10kg) and definitely less than ATV-2. In terms of overall mass, we are heavier than any ATV and any satellite launched in Europe so far by about 200kg.
The reason is that we have a higher “tare” mass – including the cargo racks, adapter plates (e.g. to secure the Columbus water pump assembly during launch), etc. – this is included in the overall vehicle mass but it is not counted in the cargo mass that we actually transfer to the ISS.
Automated Transfer Vehicle page
ATV blog archive
NASA Orion page
NASA Artemis
Airbus Orion page
Discussion: 2 comments
Thanks for this detail! I appreciate these blog entries. Good luck tonight!
Is that mass the free flight (post-separation) mass or does it include the payload adapter (365 kg I think) that remains attached to EPS?
Do you have the accurate total mass values for the previous ATV flights?
And I assume the 4105 kg of fluid cargo doesn’t include the propellant needed
for rendezvous with ISS and for deorbit? If the dry mass of ATV4 is only 9778 kg
as the press kit claims, that leaves 3873 kg unaccounted for – but I’m guessing the press kit info is bogus.
Johnathan: Too busy now with Twitter to reply in full; there are links in this post to all past cargo posts with accurate cargo loads https://blogs.esa.int/atv/2013/06/05/how-atv-albert-einstein-is-the-heaviest-ever-lifted-by-ariane/ Cheers! — Daniel