ATV

Lifeline to Earth

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will ferry propellants, food, water and equipment to the ISS. Once docked, it will use its own engines to correct the station’s orbit, compensating for a regular loss of altitude due to drag and will contribute to collision and debris avoidance. At the end of its four-month mission it will be filled with waste, and burn up as it heads back into the Earth's atmosphere.

The first ATV, dubbed 'Jules Verne', was launched by an Ariane 5 on 9 March 2008 and performed a perfect docking with the ISS on 3 April 2008. The ATV is thus the first European spacecraft to carry out an automatic rendezvous and docking with a space station. A total of five missions are planned for the period up to 2013.

Under contract to the European Space Agency (ESA), Astrium is industrial prime contractor for the ATV.

ATV Media Corner