The ''Johannes Kepler'' ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 2 (ATV-2), was an uncrewed

cargo spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which the ...

built to resupply the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). It was launched on February 16, 2011 by the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA). ''Johannes Kepler'' carried propellant, air and dry cargo weighing over , and had a total mass of over , making it, at the time, the heaviest payload launched by the ESA. The second of five

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable automated cargo spacecraft, cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV desi ...

spacecraft, it was named after the 17th-century

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

astronomer

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...

. The ATV carried around five tons more cargo than Russia's

Progress-M Progress-M (, GRAU indices 11F615A55 and 11F615A60), also known as Progress 7K-TGM, is a Russian, previously Soviet spacecraft which is used to resupply space stations. It is a variant of the Progress spacecraft, originally built in the late 1 ...

resupply spacecraft, and about 1.5 tons more than the Japanese HTV. The ATV used of fuel to boost the ISS's altitude from 350 to 400 km. Many of the supplies aboard the ATV were used for the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

mission

STS-133 STS-133 (Assembly of the International Space Station#Assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF5) was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' docked with the Int ...

and the ISS

Expedition 26 Expedition 26 was the 26th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. The expedition's first three crew members – one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts – arrived at the station on board Soyuz TMA-01M on 10 October 2010. E ...

. A

Reentry Breakup Recorder A Reentry Breakup Recorder (REBR) is a device that is designed to be placed aboard a spacecraft to record pertinent data when the spacecraft (intentionally) breaks up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. The device records data regarding the ther ...

was placed aboard the ATV before it undocked from the ISS on June 20,2011. ''Johannes Kepler'' performed a destructive

re-entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...

as intended on 21 June 2011, with its remains impacting the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Spacecraft

''Johannes Kepler'' consisted of two sections: the Propulsion Module, with four main engines and 28 smaller maneuvering thrusters, and the Integrated Cargo Carrier, which attached directly to the ISS and could hold up to eight standard payload racks. The four solar wings of the spacecraft provided up to 4,800

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s of electrical power to its rechargeable batteries. The ATV's rendezvous and docking system mounted a

telegoniometer A telegoniometer is a type of goniometer with remote control and readout. A goniometer is a device for varying the phase relationship(s) among two or more antennae in an array in order to steer its directionality without the need to physically mo ...

, which functioned as a

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

system, and two videometers, which fired

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

pulses at cube-shaped reflectors on the ISS' ''Zvezda'' service module for range detection. The nose of the spacecraft contained rendezvous sensors and Russian docking equipment.

Specifications

Mission payload

: Source:

GeoFlow II

''Johannes Kepler'' delivered the GeoFlow II

hydrodynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in ...

experiment container to the ISS. This experiment was designed to observe liquid movements in

microgravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

, and compare them with computer simulations, thus helping scientists to understand

convection currents Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously through the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convect ...

within the Earth's mantle.

Mission summary

Launch

On 16 February 2011 UTC, ''Johannes Kepler'' was launched on an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

ES rocket from the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

. The launch was conducted by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

on behalf of the ESA."Europe’s ATV Johannes Kepler supply ship on its way to Space Station"
ESA Portal. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011. The first launch attempt, on 15 February 2011, was halted four minutes before lift-off, due to an erroneous signal from one of the rocket's fuel tanks.

Docking

ISS-26 ATV-2 Johannes Kepler docks to Zvezda

Docking with the ISS was completed on 24 February 2011 at 15:59 UTC, after a 15-minute delay. The spacecraft traveled over eight days to catch up with the space station, and arrived at the aft port of the station's ''Zvezda'' service module. During the rendezvous operations, ATV-2 traveled a total of 2.5 million miles. The docking occurred as ATV-2 and the ISS flew over the coast of

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

in western Africa. Hooks and latches engaged a few minutes later to firmly attach ATV-2 to the ISS. The ''Johannes Kepler'' mission marked the first time European astronauts were on board the International Space Station during an ATV mission, with Italian astronaut

Paolo Nespoli Major Paolo Angelo Nespoli (born 6 April 1957) is an Italian astronaut and engineer of the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2007, he first traveled into space aboard the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' as a mission specialist of STS-120. In December ...

welcoming the ATV's arrival. ESA astronaut

Roberto Vittori Brigadier Roberto Vittori, OMRI (born 15 October 1964, in Viterbo) is an Italian Air Force officer and an ESA astronaut. After graduating from the Italian Accademia Aeronautica in 1989, Vittori flew in the Italian Air Force. He then trained as a ...

was also aboard the ISS at the same time as the ATV, having arrived on Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' on the

STS-134 STS-134 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF6) was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier ...

mission in May 2011.

ISS altitude Increase

''Johannes Kepler'' was used to boost the ISS's standard altitude from about 350 kilometers (220 statute miles) to 400 km (248 miles)."Higher Altitude Improves Station's Fuel Economy"
. NASA. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2013. The higher altitude has lower atmospheric drag, which reduces the propellant needed annually to maintain the station's altitude from 6,800 kg (15,000 lb) to roughly 3,630 kg (8,000 lb), depending on atmospheric conditions. The ATV used about 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) of rocket fuel to accomplish this change, with the reboost occurring incrementally over several months.

End of mission and deorbit

On 20 June 2011, ''Johannes Kepler'' undocked from the ISS. At 18:30 UTC (20:30 CEST) that same day, while preparing to deorbit, the ATV was forced to conduct a debris-avoidance maneuver, using some of its remaining fuel to move into a safe orbit after NASA warned of a potential collision with orbital debris.ESA ATV blog
Retrieved 21 June 2011. On 21 June 2011, the ATV deorbited, burning up in the atmosphere as planned over the South Pacific Ocean at around 22:44 CET.ESA ATV blog
Retrieved 21 June 2011.

ATV missions

References

External links

ESA – ATVESA – ATV blogMission Overview Video
{{DEFAULTSORT:ATV-002 Automated Transfer Vehicles Johannes Kepler Spacecraft launched in 2011 Spacecraft which reentered in 2011 Supply vehicles for the International Space Station