The Automated Transfer Vehicle

P. Amadieu & J.Y. Heloret

The development of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was confirmed at the October 1995 ESA Ministerial Council meeting in Toulouse by the ESA Member States as part of the programme for European participation in the International Space Station. The ATV will be a servicing and logistics vehicle for periodically resupplying the Station. It will be operational from early 2003, flying servicing missions about eight times until 2013 or more, depending on the Station's lifetime extension. ATV will be the tool to pay in kind for Europe's share of Station common operations costs.