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.
Jules Verne ATV has today reached a parking position 2000 km ahead of the International Space Station. Europe's ISS re-supply spacecraft will wait at this holding point for the completion of the STS-123 Space Shuttle mission before proceeding with the first of two rendezvous demonstration days. Jules Verne ATV is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on 3 April.
Jules Verne ATV successfully performed two boosts today, bringing the spacecraft to an altitude of 303 km half-way between the insertion orbit reached after last Sunday's launch and the orbit of the International Space Station. The boosts used two of the four main engines on the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Each boost lasted for approximately 2 minutes and provided a change in velocity of just over 6 m/s. Today's burns came on top of two burns conducted by mission controllers at ESA's ATV Control Centre yesterday.
Europe's space freighter, the ATV, has had its propulsion system fully restored after an earlier glitch had closed down a quarter of its thrusters. Mission controllers in Toulouse sent up commands to the vehicle on Tuesday that brought the thrusters and an electronic control box back online
Europe's new ATV space truck is up and running following Sunday's launch, although one propulsion glitch means a back-up system is currently being used. The freighter is sitting in a 260km high orbit and is due to deliver just under five tonnes of supplies to the space station on 3 April. The anomaly has shut down seven of the 28 attitude control jets and one of the space truck's four main engines.
The mission was carried out by an Ariane 5 ES launcher from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on Sunday, March 9, at 1:03 am local time in Kourou (04:03 UT, 5:03 am in Paris and 7:03 am in Moscow).
Provisional parameters at injection of the storable-propellant upper stage (EPS) were: Perigee: 259.2 km for a target of 259.5 km (±10) Apogee: 263.6 km for a target of 264.3 km (±15) Inclination: 51.61 degrees for a target of 51.63 degrees (±0.09°)