Jules Verne spacecraft ready to leave for ISS

[glactus]

Jules Verne

With ESA’s Columbus laboratory successfully attached and operating on the International Space Station, the time has now come for another European milestone mission to leave for the ISS - that of the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named 'Jules Verne'.


Release

Europe’s massive 19 357 kg supply spacecraft will be carried into orbit by a special version of the Ariane 5 launcher. This Ariane is scheduled to lift off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on March 9.

From 2008 onward, ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle will be one of the space station’s supply spacecraft, delivering experiments, equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew.

Constructed by EADS-Astrium, the ATV, which is the most powerful automatic spaceship ever built, will carry up to 9 tonnes of cargo to the station as it orbits 400 km above the Earth.

It will remain there as a pressurised and integral part of the station for up to six months until a controlled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere takes place, during which it will burn up and, in the process, dispose of 6.3 tonnes of waste material no longer needed on the station.



Ariane 5



credits:

This article has been adapted from materials provided by the European Space Agency.

This is part text only. See Jules Verne image, full text and all scientists involved at sciencedaily.com
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080229102056.htm
image: Jules Verne release:
www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRheft/FRHeft07/FRH0711/FR0711a.htm

[Andy Mac]

We all wish the Jules Verne spacecraft a safe and successful rendezvous with the ISS. I like the images you post with your articles, Henry as they give an added focal depth and 'vision' (if that's the right word) to the written content of the post.