ATV-4 (Albert Einstein)

Spacecraft nº:

ESA spacecraft nº: 81

ATV 4 being prepared to move to the Ariane 5 final assembly building. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace

Description:

• The cargo craft is Europe's fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle. When it blasts off June 5, the freighter will be the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe - weighing in at an estimated 44,610 pounds, according to the European Space Agency.
  It is also the largest vehicle to visit the space station since the retirement of the space shuttle. The ATV measures 32 feet long and 15 feet wide, and its four solar panels, arranged in a distinctive X-shaped patten, stretch out 73 feet tip-to-tip when extended in space.
  Each ATV can haul three times more cargo than Russian Progress resupply spacecraft, and twice as much mass as SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship.
• The massive spacecraft does not return cargo. At the end of each mission, it falls back into the atmosphere and burns up, disposing of trash in a safety zone over the Pacific Ocean.
• Officials are concerned a stuck antenna on a Russian Progress resupply craft may have damaged a laser reflector mounted on the aft end of the Zvezda module. Reflectors are used in concert with the ATV's laser-guided navigation system to feed range, orientation and closing rate information to the ATV's computers, which control the spacecraft's automatic approach to the space station.
  An array of 26 reflectors is positioned on the back end of the Zvezda module, beaming laser light back to sensors on the ATV, creating unique light patterns captured and recognized by the spacecraft's cameras.
  The ATV carries a backup system using telegoniometers, similar to police radar guns, to emit laser light at a different wavelength up to 10,000 times per second.
  Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko replaced one of the laser reflectors on a spacewalk April 19. Engineers suspected contamination may have damaged the old reflector. Novelli said the reflector suspected of damage from the Progress docking is in a different location and has a different use than the unit replaced during the April 19 spacewalk.
• During its four-month mission, the ATV will transfer about 1,900 pounds of propellant into the space station's fuel tanks. The rest of the ATV's fluid complement includes 1,256 pounds of water and 220 pounds of air and pure oxygen.
  Another new feature for the Albert Einstein mission is the ability for workers to enter the spacecraft while it is mounted vertically on the rocket inside the final assembly building.

Mission details:

• Delayed from March 12, April 18 and May 7, 2013.
• Officials planned to launch the Albert Einstein mission in April, but ESA decided to swap out a failed avionics component, requiring the spaceship to be disassembled and retested, setting back the launch nearly two months.
• On Jun 5, 2013 the fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATV 4, was launched from Kourou. The cargo ship was named `Albert Einstein' - not to be confused with the Einstein Observatory satellite launched in 1978. Launch mass was 19870 kg at separation from the upper stage.
• The Ariane 5ES rocket entered a -1242 x 141 km transfer orbit at 2200 UTC. The first EPS upper stage burn reached 137 x 260 km at 2209 UTC. The second burn at 2251 UTC raised perigee, and the EPS stage separated from ATV 4 'Albert Einstein' at 2256 UTC. The ATV will take ten days to complete the rendezvous with ISS. On Jun 10 Albert Einstein maneuvered to a 287 x 301 km orbit.
• The European cargo ship ATV 'Albert Einstein' docked with ISS on Jun 15, 2013 at 1407 UTC and its thrusters were used to raise the ISS orbit on Jun 19.
• The ATV-4 Albert Einstein cargo ship undocked from the Zvezda module at 0855 UTC on Oct 28, 2013.
  
  

  ATV-4 undocked from ISS

  
  
  
• ATV-4 was deorbited over the Pacific on Nov 2, 2013 with the final deorbit burns at 0835 and 1128 UTC lowering perigee to -70 km; entry loss of signal was at 1204 UTC.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Kourou - Guyane, ESA cover. Credit: #401

Launch cancel Kourou, special red cancel. Credit: #401

Docking cancel Toulouse Controle Center. Credit: #401

Tracking station, ESA cover. Credit: #401

Undocking, cancel Mission Control Center, Houston

Undocking, cancel Toulouse. Credit: #401

De-orbit cancel Houston