Mission update 9 January

Today marks just 34 days before ATV-5 undocking from the ISS and 47 days until re-entry.

ATV5 Georges Lemaître – At the very back end of the International Space Station

The mission is doing extremely well, and, as mentioned recently by our mission manager, Massimo Cislaghi, in an email: Georges Lemaître’s performance continues to be ‘EXCELLENT’.

With the spacecraft in good shape, cargo off-loading and trash loading continue according to plans, while teams at ATV-CC are very busy preparing for undocking, a two-week free-flight phase, phasing for re-entry and finally, on 27 February, re-entry itself, which is shaping up to be a spectacular show (we’ll report on these upcoming activities in future posts here in the blog – Ed.).

As last week ended, on 9 January, ISS crew were busy in ATV installing adapter plates. ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA’s Barry Wilmore installed adapter plates on several ATV rack fronts.

Sam & Butch

The function of the plates (which are not installed everywhere) is to attach additional bags in front of the racks, protruding inside the ATV central corridor; thus cargo bags can be strapped to the adapter plates allowing for additional cargo to be stowed outside the rack volume.

Also as of 9 January, Jean-Michel Bois, head of the ESA operations team at ATV-CC in Toulouse, sent a status update, reporting that everything is nominal with the vessel and the ground segment: 2647kg (98%) of ATV-5’s dry cargo (2695kg) has been transferred to the ISS (click on the ‘Continue reading’ link for details).

Finally, to end off today’s post, here are some records/’firsts’ gathered by Massimo:

ATV-5 has been the heaviest vehicle ever lifted by an Ariane rocket (20,245 kg)
ATV-5 has uploaded and delivered to the ISS the largest quantity of dry cargo launched in one European satellite
ATV-5 has loaded the largest quantity of late cargo just three weeks before launch (1,234 kg)
ATV-5 has uploaded the largest quantity of potable water to the ISS (843 kg)
ATV-5 has uploaded and delivered the largest quantity of Russian fuel to the ISS (860 kg)
ATV-5 has performed the first ISS PDAM

ATV-5 status as of 9 January 2015

GENERAL STATUS

ATV and ATV-CC nominal

CARGO and FUEL STATUS

Dry cargo : initial 2695kg, transferred 2647kg (98%)
Water : 843kg, transferred 501 liters (59%)
Oxygen (2 tanks) & Air (1 tank): initial 100kg – all O2 transferred, and 73% of air
Propellant : initial 4357kg, 1572kg used, 1001kg available for attached-phase services
Refuelling propellant : 860kg transfer done
Accepted trash : 976kg
Accepted liquid waste : 162 liters

EXECUTED OPERATIONS