Ready For Launch Atop An Ariane 5 Booster March 9th

ESA’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ferry, Edoardo Amaldi, is ready for launch on an Ariane 5 to the International Space Station on March 9th from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. ATV Edoardo Amaldi follows the two highly successful supply missions carried out by ATV Jules Verne in March 2008 and ATV Johannes Kepler in February 2011.

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ATV-3 is named after the Italian physicist and spaceflight pioneer Edoardo Amaldi. A founding father of the European Space Research Organisation – precursor of ESA – and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Amaldi is famous for being part of the group that discovered slow neutrons. This third vessel in the ATV series is the first to have been processed and launched within the target rate of one per year.
 
This marks the start of ATV as an annual production-line supply vehicle for the Space Station, positioning Europe as an essential partner in operating the orbital outpost. The spaceship will deliver essential supplies and propellant as well as reboost the Station’s altitude.
 
The highly sophisticated spacecraft is the heaviest payload ever launched by Europe. It combines an autonomous free-flying platform, a maneuverable space vehicle and – when docked – a Space Station module. To achieve an automated docking under the very tight safety constraints imposed by human spaceflight rules, ATV carries high-precision navigation systems, highly redundant flight software and a fully independent and autonomous collision-avoidance system with its own power supplies, control and dedicated thrusters.

The Space Station depends on regular deliveries of experiment equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its crew. ATV-3 will deliver nearly 10,000 pounds of propellant, oxygen, air and water to the Station. Once docked, the propellant will be used by ATV’s own thrusters to raise the Station’s orbit periodically to compensate for the natural decay caused by atmospheric drag. ATV can also be used to move the Station out of the way of potentially dangerous space debris that come too close to the manned space complex.

Before leaving the Station, Edoardo Amaldi will be filled with waste bags and unwanted hardware by the crew. It will then be deorbited over the southern Pacific Ocean to burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

FMI: www.esa.int