The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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AUTOMATED TRANSFER VEHICLE
The two flawless ATV missions have demonstrated the full range of capacities, including automatic rendezvous and docking with the ISS, several reboosts, attitude control and special manoeuvres to avoid collision with space debris.
Each ATV can deliver up to 7 tonnes of cargo to the Station, including food, drinking water, gases, research and maintenance equipment and around 3 tonnes of propellant.
Equipped with its own propulsion and navigation system, the ATV is the most challenging spacecraft ever built in Europe, combining the fully automatic capabilities of an unmanned vehicle with human spacecraft safety requirements. It is a critical resupply tool for the Station, especially following the retirement of the US Shuttle.
The third ATV is named after Edoardo Amaldi, an Italian cosmic ray physicist and a founding fathers of European space research. This will be launched in March 2012 on a powerful Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport.
ESA astronaut André Kuipers who is currently onboard the ISS will be the prime operator to monitor the ATV rendezvouz and docking. After six months, the ATV will be loaded with waste and undocked for a controlled re-entry to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.