Europe's first cargo ship, the Automated Transfer Viehcle (ATV), has successfully detached from the International Space Station (ISS) after a six-month space voyage, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday.
According to the ESA, the ATV separated from the space station at 2129 GMT under the monitor of Europe's two control centers in France's Toulouse and Russia's capital Moscow.
The ESA also said the non-reusable ATV, filled with 900 tons of solid waste and 262 kg of liquid waste, will navigate in a new orbit in the next three weeks before performing a controlled destructive re-entry on Sept. 29 into the upper atmosphere to burn up over a "completely uninhabited" area of the Pacific.
The ATV, which docked with the ISS on April 3, brought equipment, water, food and air to the ISS crew. During the period between April and August, the ATV carried out four operations to raise the ISS to a safe height of 355 km to overcome gravity.
The ATV was launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America on March 9. The ESA has planned to launch four such cargo ships, and the second ATV is expected to blast off in 2010. |
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