ATV starts journey to Kourou - story in pictures

18 July 2007

With around 400 tonnes of spacecraft and equipment for the Automated Transfer Vehicle on board, MN Toucan set sail for Kourou from Rotterdam harbour yesterday afternoon at around 15:30 CEST. The vessel is expected to arrive at Europe's Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana, in eleven days time.

The first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named Jules Verne, left ESA's research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, late last Friday. The ISS re-supply cargo spacecraft was split into three sections ahead of transportation.

Loaded on trucks, the spacecraft sections were transported by road to a nearby harbour. From there, the large white transportation containers were carried by canal barge to Rotterdam harbour.

Once in Rotterdam, the three containers were loaded onboard MN Toucan, a French cargo ship which is normally used by Arianespace to transport Ariane rocket components on the same route across the Atlantic Ocean.

ATV transportation containers are loaded onto trucks outside the ESTEC Test Centre

Negotiating the streets around ESTEC - the width of the cargo requires traffic signs to be removed to allow the trucks to pass

After arriving at Katwijk harbour, the spacecraft sections are loaded onto two canal barges

Canal barge carrying ATV's Integrated Cargo Carrier passes through Leiden

Unloading the containers from the canal barge at Rotterdam harbour

The containers are placed on the trucks which have also arrived at Rotterdam harbour

The trucks are reversed onto the cargo ship MN Toucan

The trucks are parked up and secured ahead of the Atlantic crossing to Kourou

Rate this	Views	Share
Currently 0 out of 5 Stars. 1 2 3 4 5 Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast) Thank you for rating! You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once! Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!	62	Tweet

For Public

For Media

For Educators

For Kids

ESA

ATV

International Space Station

Human Spaceflight

ATV-4 downloads