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Jules Verne Docks with ISS
The European cargo module has made it's first connection with the ISS.
Does this mean that the Russian Progress cargo supply vehicles well be obsolete?
Does this mean that the Russian Progress cargo supply vehicles well be obsolete?
WASHINGTON — Europe's first space freighter, the unmanned cargo ship Jules Verne, made its docking debut at the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday with a graceful arrival after weeks of waiting in Earth orbit.
The first of a new fleet of automated resupply ships, Jules Verne successfully docked at the orbiting laboratory at about 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT) under the watchful eye of station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.
"Right now the vehicle can be seen clearly...it's lit by the sun," Malenchenko told Russia's Mission Control before the two spacecraft docked 212 miles (341 km) above the southern Atlantic Ocean, just south of the equator and east of South America.
Malenchenko was poised to push a red button on a console inside the station's Russian-built Zvezda service module that would send Jules Verne away from the ISS should the cargo ship stray off course during its meticulous approach. But the spacecraft's smooth docking made the emergency measure unnecessary.
About the size of a London double-decker bus, Jules Verne is the first of the ESA's class of Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spacecraft to fly to the ISS. The agency spent some 1.3 billion Euros ($1.9 billion) over more than a decade to develop and build Jules Verne, and plans to launch as many as seven ATV freighters to resupply the station as payment for astronaut slots on future ISS crews.
Rest of the story here: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...king-wrap.html
The first of a new fleet of automated resupply ships, Jules Verne successfully docked at the orbiting laboratory at about 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT) under the watchful eye of station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.
"Right now the vehicle can be seen clearly...it's lit by the sun," Malenchenko told Russia's Mission Control before the two spacecraft docked 212 miles (341 km) above the southern Atlantic Ocean, just south of the equator and east of South America.
Malenchenko was poised to push a red button on a console inside the station's Russian-built Zvezda service module that would send Jules Verne away from the ISS should the cargo ship stray off course during its meticulous approach. But the spacecraft's smooth docking made the emergency measure unnecessary.
About the size of a London double-decker bus, Jules Verne is the first of the ESA's class of Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spacecraft to fly to the ISS. The agency spent some 1.3 billion Euros ($1.9 billion) over more than a decade to develop and build Jules Verne, and plans to launch as many as seven ATV freighters to resupply the station as payment for astronaut slots on future ISS crews.
Rest of the story here: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...king-wrap.html
