ATV-5 Launch - the last ATV to visit ISS! - Live transmission

[Sky_walker]

See it live on ESA blog

(Alternative link on ArianespaceTV)

Transmission will begin on a night of Tuesday to Wednesday from 23:27 GMT (London) / 01:27 CEST (Paris) / 19:27 Washington / 20:27 local time, take off is planned for 20:47:38 local time.

Weather forecast looks good, so it seems like we'll have a perfect launch

As of now Ariane already awaits at the launch pad.

Arrival to the pad:

Below shot from a Final Assembly Building (BAF) before transfer to the launch pad:

As you probably know - on July 29th, tomorrow, we'll see the last flight of ATV to the International Space Station. Georges Lemaître, or simply: ATV-5 will take off from French Guiana. It will set two new records: For ATV series it will be the heaviest one ever bringing over 10 tons of supplies and fuel to the ISS. For Ariane 5 launchers, weighting 20 tons in total it'll be the heaviest cargo lifted by the Ariane-series. You can read more about the flight.

As far as the future of ATV will belong to it's role as a service module for NASA Orion capsule flights - for now it's the end of ATV as we know it, but it's yet to perform 2 major experiments - first one being a test of the new automated rendezvous system allowing spacecraft to dock without an aid of specially designed reflectors or nav markers on the ISS like all of the other spacecrafts do (so future ESA crafts will be able to automatically dock with everything as long as it has a proper docking bay ), and the second one will be recording deadly reentry of the ATV into atmosphere and transmitting data back behind the vessel to the Iridium satellite while still surrounded by the plasma.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Sky_walker

[xenomorph555]

It's like the end of an era, a really small one but an era still! D:

[Lexif]

In central Europe, it will be visible early in the morning on it's second pass after launch, together with the upper stage.

http://blogs.esa.int/atv/2014/07/29/spotting-atv-5-over-europe/

I saw ATV-4 and took some pictures of it as it closed in on the ISS, and I might try again. Central Germany will get a perfect series of ISS passes the nights before the docking (12.8.), so it will be possible to see the two together in the sky.

[Sky_walker]

And there we go - ATV-5 safely in space:

Here is a video for those who missed it:

Mission summary:

Timelapse from the launch preparations:

And the gallery: ATV5 on flickr + ESA website Gallery.

Docking with ISS is planned on 12 August - so we have nearly 2 weeks till some photographs of ATV-5 in space arrive.

This launch marks 60 successful launches in a row for Ariane 5.

Here's some more detailed information:

On Arianespace (including orbital data), ESA (including info about some of the experiments) and Airbus (quicker overview) websites.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Javster]

I watched it, shame that both the English and French streams had patronising explanations of stages of a rocket until about T-1 minute... I would have liked to see T-10 minutes until launch...

[Sky_walker]

ESA published full, 2 hour, replay of the event: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/07/ATV-5_liftoff_full_replay

I watched it, shame that both the English and French streams had patronising explanations of stages of a rocket until about T-1 minute... I would have liked to see T-10 minutes until launch...

Yes... well... I'm not a big fan of their presenter. Find her mildly annoying. Wish they'd hire someone else and they'd stop fooling themselves into thinking that random burger eaters are watching the video (cause that's I guess who they're addressing with texts like "fairings - it's that rounded end, it's the nose of a vehicle housing our precious passenger").

Wish I would speak French - perhaps French commentary is better....

Don't get me wrong - I'm fine with teaching people about structure of a rocket, but that can be done in some professional wording, without resorting to the descriptions that sound like aimed at the people with IQ below 70. Just listen to the lady at the minute 8:00 of the full replay I linked above - professional, solid, well-informed, and at the same time: friendly enough for average joe. She did much better job than the lead presenter.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Lexif]

I had a look at the predicted orbital elements. It seems there's a maneuver called "fly-under" planned for the 8th that has the ATV pass closely under the ISS, apparently to test sensors for the new approach system. This will be observable from Europe, where the ISS and ATV will be visible together in the sky from about then until docking, with two evening passes per night. On the 8th, they will appear particulary close together.

After the fly-under, the ATV will move away from the ISS until it is elevated into a higher orbit on the 10th, which let's the ISS overtake it again. Then, the transporter will move to the traditional rendezvous position below and behind the station.

[Javster]

Wish I would speak French - perhaps French commentary is better....

The only improvement is hearing mission control as they say things rather than a translation. They're just as patronising... They don't get that no non-nerd would actually find a stream (they'd look up "space shuttle launch stream") much less watch it...

[Motokid600]

So what's this about recording the reentry? Will we get a shot of inside the ATV as it burns up? Or just telemetry?

[Sky_walker]

ESA just released photographs from a near-approach of the ATV, right below the International Space Station.

Stunning. Looks like if ATV would be flying between the clouds!

So what's this about recording the reentry? Will we get a shot of inside the ATV as it burns up? Or just telemetry?

It will be a video recorded in near-IR spectrum.

[Sky_walker]

ATV docks today at 15:30CEST

Procedure already begun and it successfully crossed point S1.

Here you can see detailed overview of a whole docking procedure.

http://blogs.esa.int/atv/2014/08/12/time-line-charts-for-todays-rendezvous-and-docking/

(BTW: Look at the procedures at point S2 - seems like ATV got Nav Lights!)

[Sky_walker]

NASA is streaming docking procedure live: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[Sky_walker]

French Stream - CNES (French Space Agency) offers 5 different cameras to choose from and the image quality is significantly better than in NASA stream. Sadly: Commentators are French only.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Sky_walker

[lajoswinkler]

Here's a fun thing to do while we wait.

http://www.watching-grass-grow.com

[Sky_walker]

o_O

/10char

[lajoswinkler]

Yeah, I know, right?

Minute and 45 seconds till docking. Bob would do it a lot faster.

[Sky_walker]

Yea, go play KSP if you want explosions.

[lajoswinkler]

That was a joke, calm your tits.

I'm mildly annoyed by the host's pronounciation of the surname Lamaître. It's not [la'matra]. Nobody requires them to use the total French pronounciation with that weird rhotic R. [lə'metr] would be sufficient.

[Sky_walker]

It's a (an attempted) Belgian pronunciation.

Anyway:

Docking completed Flawless procedure, looks like new automated approach sensors worked beautifully, ATV will now take a long break until January deorbit.

Some nice images:

Edited August 12, 2014 by Sky_walker

[SpaceXray]

Docking confirmed!

[Sky_walker]

New gallery from a docking procedure with some very nice photographs: http://www.artemjew.ru/2014/08/13/atv5-dock-foto/

Edited August 13, 2014 by Sky_walker