NASA image shows the International Space Station in 2005. A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The automated transfer vehicle (ATV) undocked from the ISS last Friday after a six-month visit. <\/p>\n
Its undocking was delayed by three days because astronauts had sent the craft a wrong identification code. <\/p>\n
Named after a 20th-century Italian physicist, the Edoardo Amaldi will exit its ISS orbit at 2142 GMT on Tuesday, firing its engines for 14 minutes to place it on an Earth-bound suicide mission. <\/p>\n
At 0042 GMT the craft will fire its engines again, this time for a second, 15-minute \"deorbit burn\"and will start falling to Earth about 20 minutes later. <\/p>\n
Impact of the debris surviving the atmospheric burnout is scheduled for 0130 GMT, according to an ESA blog. <\/p>\n
The Edoardo Amaldi is the third of five ATVs that the space agency is providing for the ISS project. <\/p>\n
The robot craft, each the size of a London double-decker bus, are designed to make one-way trips to the space station, hauling up tonnes of food, water, air, equipment and other supplies for the three people on board. <\/p>\n
The ATVs also use on-board engines to give boosts to the ISS, whose altitude drops because it is in low orbit and dragged down by lingering atmospheric molecules. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Space freighter starts suicide plunge: ESA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA image shows the International Space Station in 2005. A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday. A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday Continue reading