The European Space Agency announced on March 9 the successful launch of its first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for re-supplying and re-boosting the International Space Station. The 20-tonne vehicle was sent into orbit by an Ariane 5 ES vehicle at 05:03 CET from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Jules Verne ATV is heading for ISS, with its first docking manoeuvers scheduled for April 3, after the departure of NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour. The ATV Control Center will monitor the mission from Toulouse, France, in collaboration with two ISS mission control centers, in Moscow and Houston, the European Space Agency said.

“The launch of Jules Verne by Ariane 5 ES marks an important step on the way to ESA becoming an indispensable ISS partner with the ATV, the heaviest and most complex spacecraft ever built by ESA,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General.

On the first mission of its kind, the Jules Verne ATV will carry a 4.6-tonne payload, among which 1,150 kg of dry cargo, 856 kg of propellant for the Russian Zvezda module, 270 kg of drinking water and 21 kg of oxygen. The plan for future similar missions is to almost double this capacity.

“This is the result of close cooperation between Member States, European industry, Arianespace, CNES, ESA staff and international partners,” Dordain also said. "But the next steps of Jules Verne’s mission are as important when it comes to attaining the objective of automatic rendezvous and docking with the ISS, controlled from the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse. In meeting that objective, we will have made great strides in consolidating the role of ESA in the future international exploration of the solar system.”

Jules Verne will spend four months docked to the International Space Station, and on its way back, it is set to carry waste from the ISS. Upon entering the atmosphere, the ATV is scheduled to burn up above the Southern Pacific Ocean, in a controlled manner.

Image credits: ESA