Jules Verne, the first of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), a new series of autonomous spaceships designed to re-supply and re-boost the International Space Station (ISS), was successfully launched into low Earth orbit by an Ariane 5 vehicle. During the coming weeks, it will manoeuvre in order to rendezvous and eventually dock with the ISS to deliver cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the orbital outpost. Lift-off occurred at Sunday the 9th of March at 05:03 CET (01:03 local) from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This flight required a new version of Europe’s workhorse launcher, the Ariane 5ES, specially adapted to the task of lifting the nearly 20-tonne vehicle – more than twice as heavy as the previous largest Ariane 5 payload – to a low circular orbit inclined at 51.6 degrees relative to the Equator and equipped with an upper stage with re-ignition capabilities. The unusual launch trajectory required the deployment of two new telemetry tracking stations, one on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean and one on the Azores Islands. The Ariane 5 upper stage performed an initial 8-minute burn over the Atlantic and entered a 45-minute coast phase, flying over Europe and Asia before reigniting for a 40-second circularisation burn over Australia. Separation of Jules Verne ATV occurred at 06:09 CET (02:09 local) and was monitored by a ground station located in New Zealand. GTD is responsible for computer systems in the Launch Pad and in the Guyana Space Center and employs over 35 engineers permanently operating from Kourou (French Guayana). We will keep informed our readers, about the ATV’s operations to be deployed all this month, and looking for a definitive docking with the ISS early April.
