The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Europe's ISS logistics spacecraft, was used to perform its first debris avoidance maneuver for the International Space Station (SS). The maneuver was started last Wednesday at 18:11 CEST (16:11 UT) and finished 5 minutes 2 seconds later. In the current Station configuration, the ATV, which is docked to the aft end of the Russian Zvezda Service module at the back of the Station, is the only vehicle that can carry out this kind of maneuver. The way to avoid space debris, which in this case comes from an old satellite, is by performing a so-called retrograde manoeuvre of the Space Station, i.e. by slowing it down, which in turn lowers its orbiting altitude. This is quite a rare occurrence — it is the first time since 2003 that a debris avoidance maneuver has been performed and the first time in eight years that such a retrograde manoeuvre has been performed for debris avoidance.

The ATV Control Centre first primed ATV, putting it in the correct configuration for such a maneuver. Control was then handed over to the Mission Control Center in Moscow who guided the Station through a 180 degree turn — this placed the ATV's aft thrusters to the front of the Station with respect to the Station's flight profile. Once turned, Jules Verne ATV used its rear thrusters for the allotted time to produce a speed of 1 m/s to slow the Station down. These are the same thrusters used by ATV to perform Station reboost manoeuvres during its mission at the Station. When the debris avoidance maneuver was completed, the ISS was turned back to its original orbital attitude and ATV was handed back to the ATV Control Center who returned Europe's logistics craft back to its standard docked configuration.