Lavaux! #switzerland #beauty #view #itsagifttolivearoundhere (at Vignes Du Lavaux)
Albert Einstein Spacecraft Launched
Europe’s next Automated Transfer Vehicle, launched today to the International Space Station, was hoisted atop an Ariane 5 launcher in French Guiana on Friday.
The robotic spacecraft’s tanks are filled with propellant, water, air and pure oxygen. Technicians will load the ATV’s cargo module with fresh food and other last-minute items over the next week before the Ariane 5’s 17.7-foot-diameter payload fairing is added to enshroud the resupply freighter.
Christened Albert Einstein, the cargo craft is Europe’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle. The freighter is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe - weighing in at an estimated 44,610 pounds, according to the European Space Agency.
It is also the largest vehicle to visit the space station since the retirement of the space shuttle. The ATV measures 32 feet long and 15 feet wide, and its four solar panels, arranged in a distinctive X-shaped patten, stretch out 73 feet tip-to-tip when extended in space.
We fancy to keep #european #rockets around our #office. #ariane #model #atv4 #launch #live http://spaceinvideos.esa.int/esalive (at Swiss Space Office, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI)








