The fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle, Georges Lemaître, is seen departing the International Space Station yesterday, 14 February, 2015. Built by the European Space Agency, ATV-5 is the last in the agency's series of cargo supply ships that were first launched in 2008.
As part of ESA's contractual agreement in the space station's charter, the agency flew five ATV resupply vessels to supplement America, Russian and Japanese resupply crafts. The ATV was the largest cargo craft to visit the station, and Georges Lemaître marked the heaviest payload an Ariane V rocket had ever lofted into orbit.
Originally, ATV-5 was expected to reenter the Earth's atmosphere towards the end of February in order to analyze how destructive forces affected the vehicle. However, this 'shallow dive' into the atmosphere was cancelled when one of four power chains on the vehicle malfunctioned.
Ground Controllers in Toulouse, France have decided to plunge the spacecraft towards reentry later today. However, unlike previous cargo flights, ATV 5 will carry the REBR camera - or ReEntry Breakup Recorder. This will film the gradual destruction of the spacecraft in infrared too help engineers better understand the stresses vehicles undergo during destructive reentry.
While the ATV program is drawing to a close, lessons and hardware developed will continue to benefit humanity. NASA's Orion spacecraft will utilize ATV hardware and design experience on its Service Module. Visually, ATV's signature X-shaped solar arrays will carry over to Orion.
UPDATE: the final command from ATV-Control Center in Tolouse, France was sent at 12:52 PM EST. Reentry is expected within 20 minutes.
