CSUEB Physics Major Photographs Re-entry of Spacecraft in a Joint NASA/ESA Campaign
Louis Rene Jacome (pictured above), under the auspices of the NASA Ames Research Center and the CSUEB College of Science,
participated as a researcher in a joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) campaign (ATV-1 MAC) to observe the destructive re-entry of the first
Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-1) nicknamed 'Jules Verne'. ATV-1 was developed by ESA and designed to transport experiments to the
International Space Station (ISS) as well as resupply water, air, and other necessities. After ATV-1 'Jules Verne' completed this
task it was loaded with sewage from the ISS, and began it's journey to destructively re-enter Earth's atmosphere over
the Pacific.
The re-entry was then observed by an international team of scientists aboard two planes traveling at high altitude (~40km).
Louis Rene Jacome along with Professor Christopher Kitting (Biology Department) were aboard the NASA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory equipped
with 5 cameras (3 Video and 2 Stills) aimed at the smaller, trailing fragments of the disinigrating ATV. The mission was a success, and the data
collected by the scientists will be used to, among other things, calibrate current fragmentation models used by NASA and ESA.
Links:
Louis Rene Jacome (CSUEB Physics Major) on the left, Dr. Christopher Kitting (Biology Professor CSUEB) on the right. Aboard the NASA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory
Photograph of the re-entry of ATV-1 'Jules Verne'