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ISS Automated Transfer Vehicle preparing for Fiery Destruction June 21st

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posted on Jun, 17 2011 @ 03:19 PM
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Beware of UFOs sightings at this date!



ATV Preparing for Fiery Destruction:

Serving the International Space Station is a valuable job but it will come to a spectacular end: ESA's second Automated Transfer Vehicle, packed with Station rubbish, will deliberately plummet to its destruction on Tuesday in Earth's atmosphere.
Just like the tonnes of natural space debris that collide with our planet every day, the 10-tonne ferry will burn up on reentry.

Only a few hardy pieces might survive and splash into the uninhabited South Pacific. The area's air and sea traffic has been warned and a no-fly zone will prevent any accidents.


Full article here

Here's the timeline of the reentry:

ATV's last important task was to give the Station's orbit a big boost. One important sequence was performed 12 June, another on 15 June and the last one this afternoon, 17 June.

The combined effect of these manoeuvres was to raise the Station's orbit to around 380 km.

The crew will close the hatches between the Station and ATV-2 on Sunday afternoon at 15:30 GMT (17:30 CEST). Undocking follows on Monday, at 14:51 GMT (16:51 CEST), with ATV's thrusters gently increasing the distance from the outpost.

On 21 June, Johannes Kepler will fire its engines twice to descend from orbit.

The first burn, at 17:07 GMT (19:07 CEST) will drop it towards Earth. The second burn, at 20:05 GMT (22:05 CEST), will direct it precisely towards its Pacific target.

Hitting the upper atmosphere, ATV will tumble, disintegrate and burn, and any remains will strike the ocean at around 20:50 GMT (22:50 CEST).



posted on Jun, 17 2011 @ 04:48 PM
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Crap, it seems all the really cool stuff happens in the southern hemisphere. Stands to reason though.

The Northern hemisphere is about 60.7% water and 39.3% land.

The Southern hemisphere is about 80.9% water and 19.1% land, and that includes uninhabited Antarctica and 80% barren Australian land. Chances are good to avoid another Skylab touchdown on land, I mean I would take those odds in Vegas and bet the house!



 
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