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Another quick clip Maria recorded yesterday with ESA astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy - he gives an interesting explanation of how the ISS crew monitor ATV distance and speed with a simple plastic ruler. -- Daniel
General
03 April, 2008 16:27
Video update: Astronauts use 'Range Ruler' to monitor range at S4
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 16:14
Jules Verne now at S4 - 19 m from ISS
ATV is holding at S4, just 19 m from ISS. She'll be here for at least 15 minutes, while the mission control managers meet for the GO decision to move to S41; crew monitors that ATV stays in the 15-degree corridor, i.e., pointing correctly at the Russian module docking port. -- Daniel
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 16:09
ISS crew: adjusting illumination levels for ATV target (video)
Jean-Francois Clervoy explains how the ISS crew will, in a nominal situation, merely have to contend with adjusting the illumination level of the ATV's docking target - the vessel does the rest of the docking by itself!
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 16:08
ATV is now between S3 and S4, at a range of 42 m and closing at .07 m/sec. -- Daniel
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 15:42
Jules Verne at S3: Quick minigallery from ATV-CC
A few of our blog visitors have asked for pictures - here are some quick grabs of the scene in ATC-CC in Toulouse, France, as Jules Verne remains at station-keeping point S3. (1 more image under 'Full story' - note that our updates are getting rather slow as the WiFi network here is being well-used!) -- Daniel
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 15:35
Clervoy explains crew activity at S3
ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy was kind enough to explain a few things about ATV docking to us yesterday. Click through for a short clip explaining what the crew are doing now we are at the S3 point -- Maria
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 15:33
Jules Verne is now under VDM navigation - meaning the craft is guiding itself using the laser guidance system. This is cool! :-) -- Daniel
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 15:17
S3 arrival - Jules Verne now 249 m from ISS
ATV arrived at station-keeping point S3 at 15:16 CEST; it is scheduled to stay there until 15:52 CEST.
From 500 m out, the ISS video camera was switched on. The crew have been looking at the Simvol video display, adjusting the transparent mask overlay (that helps them guage the range and range rate to ATV), and monitoring ATV's progress.
Also at S3, ATV-CC has issued the GO SLEW command, which will initiate the ATV's manouevre to cnhange attitude into Earth-pointing mode. -- Daniel
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 15:03
The third S3 closing boost is now underway. One more to go...
-- Maria
Rendezvous& docking
03 April, 2008 14:51
Preview of today: A very cool video from Demo Day 2
Here's a video clip recorded druing Demo Day 2 on 31 March, when ATV closed to within 11 m of the ISS. This video is a sort of mash-up, showing three simultaneous views of Jules Verne as it came into illumination near S41. Bottom left shows the view via the ESA Docking Video System (camera inside Russian module); top and bottom right shows the view from two cameras mounted on the ISS (and projecting downward, thus the image is up-side-down with respect to the docking video system view).
This is a good preview of what will happen in just a couple hours from now when ATV reaches S41 again. It's real-time, so a little slow - but well worth the wait! -- Daniel
