blogtecaolivelli

ASDTRONEWS....

fonte: Internet

Astronews a cura di Massimiliano Razzano

After all the excitement about last week's

successful docking of the European ATV "

Jules Verne", it's time to spare a thought for

its Russian predecessor. The Progress 28

module was filled with rubbish and unneeded

 equipment, quietly severed from its docking

 bay and steered toward Earth. On Monday at 0850

 GMT, the selfless module dropped through the

atmosphere, burned and eventually reached the

Pacific Ocean, sinking into the satellite graveyard 3000 km east of the New Zealand coast...

On February 5th, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched

 the Progress 28 cargo ship to the International

 Space Station (ISS) to ferry supplies to the astronauts

in orbit. This mission started a very busy period for space

 traffic controllers. Soon after Progress 28 was sent on its

way, Space Shuttle Atlantis blasted off to take the

 Columbus module to be installed on the station.

 Then at the start of this month, ESA's Automated Transfer

Vehicle (ATV) sat patiently in an orbital holding pattern 

until the shuttle undocked and flew back to Earth.

Then on April 3rd, the ATV carried out a flawless

 approach and docking procedure with the ISS.

Watching over all this action on the station was the

 Progress 28 module attached patiently to the Russian

-built Pirs docking compartment. After astronauts had

salvaged reusable parts from the Progress module and

 filled it full of trash, the time came on April 7th to say 

Spokojnoj Nochi (Russian for "Good Night") to the ill-

fated supply ship to make room for the two Russians and

one South Korean to arrive after the Soyuz launch yesterday.

Dropping supply modules into the Pacific may sound

unsavoury, but it remains the only viable option to dispose

of rubbish and unwanted material when in space. Simply

 jettisoning it into space cannot be done, there must be a

controlled disposal, dumping trash into a used module and

 blasting it into a re-entry trajectory. Littering Earth orbit is

a critical problem, so space agencies are doing the best they

 can to send potential debris to Earth where most of it can

 burn up in the atmosphere. Anything left over falls into a

 predetermined "satellite graveyard" in the worlds largest ocean.