Bye-bye, ATV-4

4 June 2013 - Engineers look on as the Ariane 5 launcher fairing is lowered over ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the largest and most sophisticated space ferry to supply the International Space Station. The smaller dark cylinder visible inside the white fairing is ATV Albert Einstein , the fourth spacecraft in the series that will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana tomorrow. This was the last time anybody on Earth will see ATV-4 directly and the last photograph of the spacecraft before it flies in space. Now fully enclosed and protected by the fairing, ATV has one short trip from the integration building to the launch pad. Liftoff is set for 23:52 CEST (21:52 GMT), and three hours and four minutes later the vessel will have shed its fairing and separated from Ariane. By this time, it will have circled Earth twice. ATV Albert Einstein will spend ten days performing checks and orbital manoeuvres, bringing it to an automated docking with the Station on 15 June.