The European Space Agency’s (ESA) automated cargo craft (ATV-2) is ready to be shipped to Kourou, French Guiana, for launch atop an Ariane 5 to the International Space Station (ISS).
ESA director for human spaceflight Simonetta Di Pippo said that when the US space shuttle retires, ATV will be the largest vehicle supplying the ISS.
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The vehicle can carry up to 7t of cargo to the station including food, drinking water, gases, research equipment and propellants.
The cargo craft will also occasionally manoeuvre ISS to avoid collisions with space debris, regularly boosting the station’s orbit to around 400km.
After the mission, ATV-2 will be loaded with waste, undocked and incinerated during controlled re-entry into the atmosphere.
ATV-2 has undergone extensive system testing at EADS Astrium’s site in Bremen, Germany, and will be assembled and further tested before the scheduled launch.
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By GlobalDataThe launch is planned for the end of 2010.
