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janrinok writes:

Europe will close an important chapter in its space flight history Tuesday, launching the fifth and final robot ship [phys.org] it had pledged for lifeline deliveries to the International Space Station.

The 20-tonne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) dubbed Georges Lemaitre, the size of a double-decker bus, is set to blast off from South America with fuel, water, oxygen, food, clean clothes and 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of coffee for six Earth-orbiting astronauts. Named for the father of the Big Bang theory of how the Universe was formed, the heaviest ATV yet follows on the hi-tech trail of four others sent into space by the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2008.

The 10-metre (33-foot) pressurised capsule will be the heaviest ATV yet launched by an Ariane 5 ES rocket. It is scheduled to blast off from Kourou in French Guiana at 8:44 pm (2344 GMT) Tuesday. The craft will carry nearly 6.6 tonnes of supplies for the orbital outpost and its occupants, including 850 litres of drinking water--the most ever, and three tonnes of fuel. Some of the fuel will be used to boost the ISS--falling towards Earth at a rate of about 100 metres (330 feet) per day due to atmospheric resistance--to higher altitudes with the ATV's onboard engines.

On August 12, it should dock with the station orbiting Earth at an altitude about 400 km (250 miles) and a speed of 28,800 km (18,000 miles) per hour. At the end of its mission, the craft will undock filled with tonnes of garbage and human waste, de-orbit and self-destruct upon entry into the atmosphere over an uninhabited zone of the South Pacific.

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