Europe’s Space Wagon for ISS Connection

AFP – A robot freighter laden with seven tonnes of supplies was set to dock on Thursday with the International Space Station (ISS), its European controllers said here on Thursday.

The unmanned vessel, the Johannes Kepler, was scheduled to team up with the ISS at 1547 GMT after an eight-day orbital flight covering some four million kilometres (2.5 million miles).

“The ship is behaving admirably,” said Martial Vanhove, director at the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) operations centre in Toulouse, southwestern France.

Navigating by starlight and using onboard thrusters, the ship has been crawling towards the ISS, which is orbiting at an altitude of about 350 kilometres (218 miles).

Four hours before docking, it was around 40 kilometres (25 miles) behind and five kilometres (2.5 miles) below the station, ESA said.

The giant cylindrical vessel is ESA’s second ATV. The first, the Jules Verne, was hoisted into space in 2008.

The 20-tonne vehicle is designed to supply the ISS with air, food and spare parts and lift the sprawling station — which, tugged by Earth’s atmosphere, has lost altitude — by some 50 kilometres.

Once emptied of its cargo, the Johannes Kepler will then be used as a spare room and for storage, easing cramped conditions for the ISS crew.

In early June, the ATV will undock, laden with rubbish, human waste and unwanted hardware, and then go on a suicide plunge, burning up over the South Pacific.

ESA is contracted to build five ATVs under its contract with the US-led project.

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