Next ATV Space Station Resupply Spacecraft Becoming Ready for Launch

Europe's fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), set to supply the International Space Station, now entered the final phase of preparations for its launch on top of the heavy-lift rocket Ariane 5. The launch of Albert Einstein, the name of the 4th ATV, will take place this spring from the European spaceport in French Guiana on Arianespace's Flight VA213.

After the Space Shuttle retired, the ATVs are now one of the largest and most advanced spacecraft available -- with the downside that they are expendable and cannot return to Earth, and also only one more will be built. A new version that could return cargo to Earh, but with less cargo space, is under development though. An adapted ATV propulsion and control stage will also power the American Orion spaceship, coupled together they will fly to the moon in a few years in a prototype mission that serves as a pre-stage to re-establish human access to the moon.

The ATV is currently being processed in the Spaceport's S5 payload preparation building, where it was transferred yesterday from the facility's S5C large preparation hall into its S5B high-bay area. Riding on an air cushion pallet, the ATV was efficiently moved within the S5 building using internal transfer corridors that are maintained to clean-room conditions. Following its final preparations, ATV Albert Einstein will be moved to the Spaceport's launcher integration building, where it will be integrated atop the Ariane 5.

Weighing approximately 20 metric tons at launch, this latest ATV will carry some 6,270 kg. of fuel, water, air, oxygen and dry cargo to the space station. It was made in Germany, at Astrium's Bremen facility, on contract for the European Space Agency. Besides resupplying, ATVs are also used to adjust the International Space Station's orbital altitude and make maneuvers to avoid collisions with space debris.

Flight VA213 signifies the 213th flight of an Ariane with this workhorse family of launchers since 1979. Arianespace is responsible for launching all ATVs, and has orbited three of them to date: ATV Edoardo Amaldi in 2012, ATV Johannes Kepler in 2011 and ATV Jules Verne in 2008.