The ESA spacecraft will soon burn up in Earth's atmosphere

Sep 26, 2012 09:03 GMT  ·  By

Though the European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle 3 (ATV-3) space capsule was supposed to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, September 25, the maneuver was delayed on account of a computer error.

The glitch was recorded on a laptop computer inside the station, and its effects were severe enough to delay the planned departure, scheduled for 6:35 pm EDT (2235 GMT), Space reports.

Mission Control experts radioed the Expedition 34 crew, led by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, and informed them that the ATV-3 departure would not be taking place yesterday. The spacecraft is docked to the Russian-built Zvezda module.

A meeting will be held today to determine when the European resupply capsule will be removed from the station. Once that happens, ATV-3 will burn up in the upper layers of the atmosphere.