Automated Transfer Vehicle

Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), uncrewed European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft that carried supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2008 to 2014. The first ATV, Jules Verne, named after the French author, was launched on March 9, 2008.

The ATV was the largest spacecraft the ESA ever launched. It was a cylinder 10.3 metres (33.8 feet) long and 4.5 metres (14.8 feet) wide. It was divided into two modules, the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) and the Service Module. The ICC could carry up to 7,667 kg (16,903 pounds) to the ISS and was itself divided into two modules: the front pressurized module, which carried hardware, science experiments, and food, and the rear nonpressurized module, which had 22 tanks containing fuel, water, and air for the ISS. The Service Module contained the propulsion and electronics of the ATV. Attached to the Service Module were four solar panels, each 11.2 metres (36.7 feet) long, that supplied power to the ATV.

The ATV was launched on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Approach and docking with the ISS were fully automated. When docked, the ATV used its onboard fuel to keep the ISS’s orbit from decaying. After six months in orbit, the ATV was filled with several tonnes of waste and burned up reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

The second ATV, Johannes Kepler, named after the German astronomer, was launched on February 16, 2011, and the third, Edoardo Amaldi, named after the 20th-century Italian physicist, was launched on March 23, 2012. Only two more were launched after the Edoardo Amaldi: Albert Einstein, on June 5, 2013, and Georges Lemaître, on July 29, 2014.