ATV Control Centre main screen showing ATV altitude top right.

ATV Control Centre main screen showing ATV altitude top right.

Mission director Mike Steinkopf confirms ATV-5’s first deorbit burn:

DEO1 successful with nominal performance of DV and duration DV 51.76 m/s nominal duration of 826.5 s

ATV-5 fired its thrusters for almost 14 minutes to reduce its speed by 186 km/h. It is now flying around 240 km above Earth or about 150 km less than before the deorbit burn. This is the beginning of the end for Georges Lemaître: its second deorbit burn planned for 17:26 GMT will set it on its final course to a fiery reentry.