ATV-3 CARGO: the World's largest spacecraft

On 23 March 2012, Ariane-5 will be making its first flight of the year. It will be an exceptional one with as its payload is the biggest and heaviest spacecraft in the world, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV. The Edoardo Amaldi is the third ATV to be launched, once again carrying a record amount of freight and propellants to the International Space Station. It is due to dock with the ISS on March 28 and stay attached to the orbital outpost until late August. After this time it will be detached and put into a destructive reentry, which will break the ATV up in the Earth's atmosphere.

This A & B-Roll details the cargo on board, and includes interviews with Massimo Cislaghi, ESA's ATV-3 Mission Manager, and André Kuipers, the ESA astronaut who will receive ATV-3 at the ISS. Interviews are in English and French.

More background information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/index.html