ATV Jules Verne reentry observation: Mission design and trajectory analysis

On 29th of September, 2008, the European spacecraft ATV-JV (Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne) successfully completed its mission with a safe destructive re-entry into the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area (SPOUA). Since the ATV-JV was the first ATV mission, the main events of re-entry have been observed by two aircrafts (equipped internally with a large number of optical devices) and from International Space Station (ISS): assessment of the break-up altitudes and identification of explosion events are the main objectives. Several constraints have been considered for ATV-JV trajectory design, for the location of the two aircrafts and for ISS attitude maneuvers in order to fulfill the observation conditions. The paper here addresses definition of main objectives of re-entry observation, the trade-off analysis on the re-entry observation system, the mission design and trajectory analysis of the vehicles involved (ATV, ISS, observation aircrafts) and preliminary trajectory results from the observation flight.