Just 3 weeks into its delicate fuelling operations, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle has been successfully loaded with the vital oxygen required to enable the crew of the International Space Station to breathe and is gearing up for launch.
The maiden voyage of the first European International Space Station (ISS) resupply spaceship is targeted for no earlier than 22nd February 2008 and when in orbit, the huge payload of oxygen will be transferred to the ISS’s atmosphere for the crew to breathe.
Since early January this year, the launch campaign of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has intensified with the month-long loading operations taking place in the huge fuelling chamber inside the vast S5 integration building at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Teams from Astrium sites in Bremen, Lampoldshausen in Germany, Stevenage in the UK and Les Mureaux of France are in charge of the delicate operations, while specialists from Italy are involved in loading the highly explosive, pure oxygen gas. Up to 20kg of oxygen will be loaded onto the ATV and once in orbit, this is manually injected by the crew into the ISS atmosphere. For up to six months, the ATV remains attached, mostly in dormant mode with the hatch to the ISS open.
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