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| | | | | | | Successful design review: ATV gets go-ahead
16 June 2003
| The International Space Station (ISS) depends on regular deliveries of experimental equipment and spare parts as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. From Autumn 2004 onward, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be one of the indispensable ISS supply spaceships.
Credits: ESA/Ducros | |  |  | |
| | | | | This new vehicle, scheduled for maiden flight in September 2004, will dock with the Station's Zvezda Service Module. It will carry a 7.4 tonne payload that includes water, oxygen and propellant. Four tonnes of the propellant will be used to reboost the Station at regular intervals; another 860 kg will be transferred to the Station for attitude and orbit control. ATV will be a separate transfer vehicle with avionics and propulsion capability. Launched by Ariane-5E, it will resemble a regular satellite payload protected by Ariane's fairing. Equipped with a set of engines and with solar panels, it will include a separate pressurised payload container. Controlled from the ATV Control Centre in Europe, its docking manoeuvres will be coordinated with the Space Station Control Center at Houston and with the Russian control centre near Moscow. Status as of March 2002.
Credits: ESA-D. Ducros | | | | |
| | | | | Transfer of the Automated Transfer Vehicle Structural Thermal Model (ATV STM) to the LEAF Acoustic Facility at ESA's test centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands (12 December 2001)
Credits: ESA | | | | |
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| | Related articles Jules Verne: the first and most elaborate space rendezvous for EuropeCNES to run ATV Control Centre under ESA contract2003: a challenging year to build Jules VerneJules Verne - an extraordinary space travellerATV mission scenario - picture reportRelated links ATV homepage
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