The controlled destructive re-entry of the first ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne took place in the early hours of 29th September 2009 over uninhabited area of the South Pacific ocean. To observe and characterise the events occurring during the re-entry, a joint ESA/NASA multi-instrument aircraft campaign was performed using two high altitude aircraft equipment with a suite of optical instruments to collect imaging, spectroscopic and photometric data over a wide wavelength range. The aircraft observations were complemented with UV and visible imaging & spectroscopy observations from the International Space Station using the Russian FIALKA instrument. The re-entry was well observed by all instruments on the aircraft and ISS. Preliminary analysis showed that several major fragmentation events occurred, as well as a distinct explosive event.

The objective of the workshop is to present the preliminary observational results from the campaign, including the sequence of events during the re-entry, spectroscopic data & trajectory reconstruction. Extended data analysis and use of the observation data in validation of re-entry models will also be discussed.