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ATV Jules Verne Now Ready to Join Up with the International Space Station
:: 29 March, 2008
After several days spent in a parking orbit 2000 km ahead of the ISS, Jules Verne ATV is now ready to join up with the International Space Station. This first docking attempt can be followed live on 3 April 2008 from 15:30 CEST onwards from one of the European participating centres.
One hour and 6 minutes after lift-off of the Ariane-5 ES launcher from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 9 March 2008 at 05:03 CET, Jules Verne ATV was placed in a circular orbit at 51.6° relative to the equator. At that point in time, the Guiana Space Centre transferred mission authority to ESA's ATV Control Centre located at the CNES site in Toulouse. Jules Verne ATV was then positioned 2000 km from the ISS while awaiting US Space Shuttle Endeavour's return to Earth on the night of 26 to 27 March.
In the next few days, the CNES and ESA operational teams, supported by the teams of the ATV prime contractor, Astrium, will carry out manoeuvres aimed at positioning the ATV near the ISS and beginning the final approach phase.
The two main manoeuvres (Demoday 1 and Demoday 2), currently scheduled for 29 and 31 March, are intended to demonstrate the ATV's ability to dock entirely safely with the ISS and, in particular, to perform an escape manoeuvre commanded by the ISS crew when Jules Verne is just 12 metres away from the station.
The docking of Jules Verne ATV is scheduled for 3 April at 16:41 CEST. The final decision on whether to proceed with this manoeuvre will be taken by the ISS Mission Management Team in consultation with the European partners only 24 hours before the operations. For this first attempt, ESA and CNES will be organising live transmission of the event from the ATV Control Centre at CNES in Toulouse to the various European sites.
The ATV Control Centre at CNES in Toulouse will act as focal point for media in France and will be home to experts who will be on hand for interviews and background information.
Journalists wishing to watch these manoeuvres from one of the above-mentioned sites are asked to kindly complete the linked accreditation form and fax or email it to the Establishment of their choice.
About International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in space. The on-orbit assembly of ISS began in 1998. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye: it has an altitude of 350-460 km (217-286 statute miles) above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,700 km (17,210 statute miles) per hour, completing 15.77 orbits per day. The ISS is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and eleven European countries (ESA).
The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB, Brazil) participates through a separate contract with NASA. The Italian Space Agency similarly has separate contracts for various activities not done in the framework of ESA's ISS works (where Italy also fully participates). China has reportedly expressed interest in the project, especially if it is able to work with the RKA. The Chinese are not currently involved, however.
The ISS is a continuation of what began as the U.S. Space Station Freedom, the funding for which was cut back severely. It represents a merger of Freedom with several other previously planned space stations: Russia's Mir 2, the European Columbus and Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The projected completion date is 2010, with the station remaining in operation until around 2016. As of 2008, the ISS is already larger than any previous space station.
The ISS has been continuously inhabited since the first resident crew entered the station on November 2, 2000, thereby providing a permanent human presence in space. The crew of Expedition 16 are currently aboard. At present the station has a capacity for a crew of three. In order to fulfill an active research program it will be necessary to eventually hold 6 crew members. Early crew members all came from the Russian and U.S. space programs. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter joined the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006, becoming the first crew member from another space agency. The station has, however, been visited by astronauts from 15 countries. The ISS was also the destination of the first five space tourists.
The station is serviced primarily by Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and by U.S. Space Shuttle orbiters. On March 9, 2008, the European Space Agency ESA launched an Ariane 5 with the first Jules Verne ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle toward the ISS carrying over 8,000 kilograms of cargo. Rendezvous and docking are planned for early April, 2008.
The assembly of the International Space Station is a major aerospace engineering endeavor. When assembly is complete the ISS will have a pressurized volume of approximately 1,000 cubic meters. Assembly began in November 1998 with the launch of Zarya -- the first ISS module -- on a Proton rocket, and as of March 2008 assembly is about 70% of total assembly complete.
Two weeks after Zarya was launched, the STS-88 shuttle mission followed, bringing Unity, the first of three node modules, and connecting it to Zarya. This bare 2-module core of the ISS remained unmanned for the next one and a half years, until in July 2000 the Russian module Zvezda was added, allowing a maximum crew of three astronauts or cosmonauts to be on the ISS permanently.
About Guiana Space Centre
The Guiana Space Centre, or more commonly, Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) is a French spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. Operational since 1968, it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport due to its proximity to the equator, and the fact that launches in the favourable direction are over water. The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES, and the commercial Arianespace company conduct launches from Kourou.
The place was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France. When the European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975, France offered to share Kourou with ESA. Commercial launches are bought also by non-European companies. ESA pays two thirds of the spaceport's annual budget, and has also financed the upgrades made during the development of the Ariane launchers.
Kourou is located approximately 500 km north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10'. At this latitude, the Earth's rotation gives an additional velocity of approximately 500 m/s, when the launch trajectory heads eastward. Therefore, manoeuvring the satellites to the desired orbit is usually a simpler process.
The ground facilities at GSC include launcher (Ensemble de Lancement) and satellite preparation buildings, launch operation facilities and a solid propellant factory. GSC covers a total of 850 square kilometres.
ESA is currently building facilities for launching Russian-built Soyuz rockets from this spaceport near Sinnamari, a village 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the site used for the Ariane-5. Under the terms of a Russo-European joint venture, ESA will augment its own launch vehicle fleet with Soyuz rockets (and use them to launch ESA and/or commercial payloads) and the Russians will get access to the Kourou spaceport for launching their own payloads with Soyuz rockets. They will use the Guiana Space Centre as an alternative to their Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan launching site, with the benefit of significantly added payload capability due to the before-mentioned position near the equator.
The project is being co-funded by Arianespace, ESA, and the European Union, with CNES being the prime contractor. The project has a projected cost of approximately €320 mio, where €120 mio are allocated for modernizing the Soyuz vehicle. The official opening of the launch site construction occurred on February 27, 2007. Excavation work however, started several months before and is expected to run through most of Q2 2007. Russian firms are due to arrive at the spaceport starting March, to build the necessary infrastructure and support facilities for operating the Soyuz launch vehicle. The maiden launch of Soyuz from CSG is currently planned for late 2008.
In November 2007, reports emerged attributed to Vladimir Grezdilov, general director of the Mir company, of thefts from the Soyuz site near Sinnamari, a village 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the site used for the Ariane-5, that might cause delays to its completion and the first launches. Grezdilov said that the local security company was involved.
