ATV Kepler tanking up, 13 December 2010

In anticipation of the vessel’s upcoming launch, scheduled for 15 February, ATV Johannes Kepler is now being ‘tanked up’ with fuel at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou.

Of all the vessels that can deliver cargo to the ISS, ATV can deliver the largest quantity of fuel, up to 5.5 tonnes maximum.

With this fuel, ATV can regularly reboost the Station’s orbit, which suffers a natural decay of 50 to 100 m each day (what goes up must come down – unless reboosted by ATV – Ed.) due to drag caused by traces of atmosphere at the ISS orbital altitude (roughly, 400km