Spacewatch: Jules Verne ATV Re-entry Breakup Video

By Evan Ackerman

What do you do with a used spaceship? Stuff it full of crap (both literally and figuratively, I imagine) and send it off to a fiery death in the upper atmosphere. The European Space Agency’s Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle delivered six tons of cargo and an orbital boost to the International Space Station last March, and has been taking up space ever since. The ESA decided to cast it loose over the pacific ocean, where a NASA DC-8 observation plane was waiting to watch the show. Video after the jump.

[ Jules Verne ATV ]