Main » 2014»August»2 » The last ATV spacecraft launch to Space Station.
The last ATV spacecraft launch to Space Station.
12:09
On July 29, 2014 at 23:47 UTC the ATV-5 " Georges Lematire” European unmanned supply spacecraft was launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The space vehicle was orbited by the Ariane-5ES rocket-carrier.
The 5th Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named for the Belgian priest and physicist Georges Lemaitre behind the Big Bang theory, is scheduled to dock with the aft port of the Russian "Zvezda” module on August 12.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle is the biggest spaceship of its type, capable of carrying food, supplies, experiments, fuel, water and air for the space station's six-person crew.
The spacecraft weighed more than 20 tons at launch, making it the largest in the fleet of international resupply vehicles servicing the space station. But this launch marked the last flight of the ATV. "Georges Lemaitre” is the last ATV, six years after the launch of the first, which was in March 2008.
