Europe's space freighter has destroyed itself over the South Pacific.

欧洲开普勒号宇宙运输船在南太平洋海域自行解体。

Artist's impression: Contact with Kepler was lost at 2041:39 GMT at an altitude of 80km
The ATV-Johannes Kepler ship took 1.3 tonnes of rubbish from the space station into a controlled dive into the atmosphere just before 2100 GMT on Tuesday.

Most of the vehicle and its waste cargo¹ would have been vaporised（被汽化的） in the descent.

Only a few robust² pieces of hardware could have survived to the ocean surface, say officials.

The burn-up brings to an end Kepler's four-month mission to the station.

Its purpose had been to deliver more than seven tonnes of fuel, food, air and equipment to the orbiting platform.

Kepler also used its big thrusters（推进器） to push the International Space Station (ISS) higher into the sky.

The space lab is now flying at an altitude of more than 380km (235 miles) - its furthest ever distance from Earth.

It means the station will now experience less drag from the wisps（小捆，一缕） of air still present high above the planet that work to pull the platform downwards³ over time.