Brief update in this evening from ESA’s Jean-Michel Bois at ATV-CC. Albert Einstein is operating normally and closing in on the ISS.

This afternoon, we had the successful first TIV (‘Transfer to ISS Vicinity’) manoeuvres:

  • TV1-1 : at 11:31:34 UTC,  22.4m/s
  • TV1-2 : at 12:18:25 UTC, 22.3m/s

It’s interesting to note that, again today, this set of thruster burns had to be reassessed and replanned just a few hours before the nominal start time to avoid debris! ATV is now at around 380km altitude, and some 25 degrees behind the ISS, quickly catching up.

The second TIV manoeuvres will occur this evening at 20:06 CEST (19:06 UTC) with a planned delta-V of 5.6m/s and at 20:52 CEST (19:52 UTC) with a planned delta-V of 5.7m/s. These will position the ATV at around 400km altitude, 10 degrees behind the station.