NASA Robotic Undocks From Space Station

By: Pat Prescott
06/21/2011 02:37 PM ET

NASA Space Station – Packed with trash and unneeded cargo, a robotic spaceship undocked from the International Space Station on Monday. What is called an Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 or ATV-2, is named “Johannes Kepler,” is named after the 17th century German astronomer who formulated famous laws of planetary motion. The ship with its cargo will be destroyed when it re-enters Earths atmosphere.

Made by the European Space Agency, it spent 4 months docked at the space station. It originally carried about 7 tons worth of supplies to the station such as water, food, fuel and experiments to the station. Now it leaves to make way for an incoming Russian cargo ship expected later in the week.

The ATV-2 weighed 22 tons at launch, and could fit a double-decker bus inside. The cylindrical vehicle is about 35 feet long and 14.7 feet wide. And it is the second robotic cargo spacecraft built by the European Space Agency,

Before it left the space station it gave it a little help by sending it to a higher orbit. “The ATV, before departing, performed four different reboost maneuvers, putting the station at nearly its highest altitude of 237 statute miles,” said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring.

Currently there are 6 astronauts living aboard the space station, Andrey Borisenko and flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Sergei Volkov of Russia, as well as Ron Garan and Mike Fossum of NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. The shuttle Atlantis will launch on July 8, carrying four astronauts and a haul of spare supplies on a 12-day trip to the station. During the shuttle mission, Fossum and Garan plan to conduct a space walk to perform maintenance outside the space station.