First-Ever Video of an ATV Vehicle Into Orbit!

Yesterday, June 5, the European Space Agency

launched

their ATV-4

Albert Einstein

cargo vessel from their spaceport in French Guiana. Liftoff occurred at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT), and in addition to over 7 tons of supplies for the ISS a special payload was also included: the

DLR

-developed STEREX experiment, which has four cameras attached to the Ariane 5ES rocket providing a continuous 3D view of the mission, from liftoff to separation to orbit and, eventually, docking to the Station on June 15.

The dramatic video above is the first-ever of an ATV vehicle going into free-flight orbit -- check it out!

– (translated)

If you look along the horizon at around 5:20, you can make out the plume from the launch.

At 20,190 kg (44, 511 lbs) ATV

Albert Einstein

is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Ariane.