The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched its third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Ariane 5 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The 20t vessel, ATV Edoardo Amaldi, has been launched to deliver 7t of propellant, food, water, experiments and spare parts for the space lab and will also reboost the station’s orbit while being attached for about five months.
ESA Human Spaceflight and Operations director, Thomas Reiter, said that based on the capabilities and knowhow, the agency, along with European industry, has developed the ATV programme, which can be evolved further.
"This will open up a wide range of opportunities for us to contribute to future ventures in space exploration," Reiter said.
This is Europe’s third launch to the ISS programme after the first, which docked with the space station in 2008, followed by a second one, which launched early last year.
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By GlobalDataNamed after an Italian physicist, TV Edoardo Amaldi is the third in a series of five supply ships planned to be sent to ISS to fulfil Europe’s obligation towards the exploitation costs of the station.
ESA said that the ATV-3, which was built by a consortium led by Astrium, was the first to have been launched within the target rate of one for every year.
ATV features include high-precision navigation systems, redundant flight software and an autonomous self-monitoring and collision-avoidance system with its own power supplies, control and thrusters.
Following the launch, ATV-3 will automatically dock with the Russian Zvezda service module which is expected by March 28.
During the mission, the space vehicle will be guided by the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France, in collaboration with Space Station control centres in Moscow, Russia and Houston, US.
Europe is planning to launch two further freighters to the ISS in 2013 and 2014.
Image: ESA has launched ATV-3 space craft to ISS aboard Ariane 5 launcher on 23 March 2012. Photo: ESA – S. Corvaja, 2012
