Europe launches Jules Verne ATV - its first re-supply ship to the ISS

This morning Jules Verne, the first of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), a new serie of autonomous spaceship designed to re-supply and re-boost the International Space Station (ISS), was successfully launched into low Earth orbit by an Ariane 5ES vehicle.

During the coming weeks, it will manoeuvre in order to rendezvous and dock with the ISS to deliver cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the orbital outpost.

Lift-off occurred at 04:03 GMT (01:03 local) from the Guyana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana, South America. This flight required a new version of Europe’s launcher, the Ariane 5ES, specially adapted to the task of lifting the nearly 22-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 ATV 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 5ES 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 05:09 GMT (02:09 local) and was monitored by a ground station located in New Zealand.