The meeting itself between the spacecraft and the station will take place at the end of March or the beginning of April, under visibility conditions that will allow the astronauts on the station to notice its approach
The new spacecraft will take off aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, whose capabilities have been stretched to carry the enormous weight. The ATV will allow the transfer of food, water, fuel and equipment for experiments to the space station. The fuel that will remain inside it will allow the station to be re-accelerated, and to compensate for its loss of altitude. The ATV is Europe's largest and most sophisticated spacecraft to launch into space. She will be able to find her own way to the space station.
"The ATV is a new era for Europe, it has almost everything that should be in a spacecraft" says Alan Thirkettle, program manager at the European Space Agency. "This is an extremely complex vehicle. It will be able to adapt itself to approaching the space station with almost human senses, it includes the characteristics of the most complicated satellites we have built."
ATV - space truck
The ATV spacecraft will enable the resupply of the space station with 7.5 tons of cargo, including equipment, food and clothing. A large tank can be used to transfer air, water and fuel. The cost of the project, in the framework of which four spacecraft were built, each of which will be used for a one-time mission - about 1.3 billion euros. Unlike the Russian Progress spacecraft, which bring supplies to the station and each receives a new serial number, these spacecraft will be given names. The writer of fantastical journeys Jules Verne won that the first spaceship will be named after him.
The date was jointly decided by representatives from the European, Russian and American space agencies last Wednesday, when they met at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis carrying the European Space Laboratory Columbus. The need for twinning stems from the significant traffic this year towards the station - including two shuttles - the next of which will take off in March, and the shuttle is also expected to be visited by Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.
It is possible that the spacecraft will circle the Earth for several weeks and dock with the shuttle in the time window between March 30 and April 5, a period when the space station will align with the sun so that the astronauts will have a clear view of the approaching spacecraft without being blinded by the light. Although the astronauts will not have a direct role in the docking procedures, they will be able to stop the process if they fear that a problem may arise for them. Jules Verne will remain attached to the shuttle until August, after which it will leave the station and target itself for a crash in the Pacific Ocean.
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