Yesterday afternoon the propellant pipes of the ATV were pressurised and “everyhting is now ‘go’ for the refuelling”, confirmed Jean-Michel Bois from the ATV-CC this morning.

ATV will pump 860 kg of fuel and oxidiser into the tanks of Zarya module on this afternoon. All of the available propellants will be transferred during the 1.5-hour operation, after which the pipes will be purged and evacuated to avoid any problems when ATV undocks.

ATV is docked to Zvesda module, but the tanks into which fuel and oxidiser from the ATV are pumped are located in Zarya.

Then air and oxygen will flow into the Station on 12 and 13 August. ATV-4 holds 66.3 kg of air and 33.3 kg of pure oxygen for the crew. It also arrived with 564 kg of water in its tanks, 23% of which has already been pumped into the Station’s tanks.

On 14 August, ATV will light up its engines for another orbit reboost, followed by another on 28 August.

An article about the ATV’s status was published today on ESA web pages: Action-packed time for Albert.