The ship Albert Einstein connected to the space station

The fourth transport spacecraft of Europe on June 15 flew to connect with the International Space Station (ISS), bringing 6.6 tons of cargo to the station, AFP led the European Space Agency. (ESA) said.

>>>Ship Albert Einstein left the launch pad to bring supplies to ISS

The fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) named after the father of relativity Albert Einstein assembled into the Zvezda module on ISS at 21: 7 minutes on June 15 (VN time), later than 20 minutes compared to expected.

The ship Albert Einstein connected to the Zvezda module on ISS - (Photo: NASA)

Earlier, the Albert Einstein ship was lifted up by Ariane 5 boosters from the launch pad at Kourou Space Center in French Guiana on June 5, carrying 6.6 tons of goods including water, food, clothes, oxygen. , fuel . to provide astronauts on the station.

It is known that the Albert Einstein ship, the nearly 20.2-ton ATV-4, is Europe's fourth supply ship carrying goods for astronauts on Earth's space outpost. It is about the size of a 10-meter, 4.5-meter-long double-decker bus.

Previously, ESA also sent three supply ships to ISS, including the ATV-3, Edoardo Amaldi, launched on March 23, 2012, the ATV-2 named Johannes Kepler launched on February 16. 2011 and the ATV-1 named Jules Verne launched on March 9, 2008.

Following Albert Einstein, the fifth and final European supply vessel, ATV-5, named George Lemaitre, the father of the Big Bang theory, is expected to fly into space in 2014.

The ship Albert Einstein expected to leave the station in October, carrying 6 tons of waste from the station to bury the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to the mission of supplying cargo to the space station and taking away waste, the European ATV fleet also performs another important task to help push the station to a higher orbit by means of the ship.

The ship Albert Einstein left the launch pad and soared into the universe on June 5 - (Photo: AFP)

Raising the orbit for ISS was carried out regularly to help this $ 100 billion space station compensate for the loss of altitude due to the gravity of the earth, as well as to facilitate ISS to connect with ships. Space.

There are currently six working astronauts on the 36th International Astronaut, including commander Pavel Vinogradov and astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Alexander Misurkin (of the Russian Federal Space Agency - Roscosmos), Karen Nyberg, Chris Cassidy (NASA), Luca Parmitano (Italian, ESA).