What is the Automated Transfer Vehicle?

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is an unmanned servicing and logistics vehicle for the periodical resupply of the International Space Station. It is launched on Ariane 5. Ariane 5 and the ATV will be the tool for Europe to pay in kind for its share of International Space Station common operations costs.

The ATV will provide the following services to the International Space Station:

• Delivery of cargoes to the Station (such as experiments, food, compressed air and water)
• Refuelling of the Station (i.e. the transfer of propellant to the Zarya (FGB) module)
• Reboost and attitude control during reboost of the whole Station to compensate for the continuous loss of altitude by the Station.
• Reboost and attitude control during reboost of the whole Station to compensate for the continuous loss of altitude by the Station.

Payload Capability

The ATV has an upload capability of up to 7.5 t and a download capability of up to 6.5 t (for a 400 km, 51.60° orbit). In the same mission it carries both dry and liquid cargoes. Up to 840 kg of water can be accommodated, as well as 100 kg of air or oxygen or nitrogen. Dry cargo of up to 5500 kg is located in a pressurised environment in the secondary structure of the Cargo Carrier.

Mission Profile

• The ATV will be launched by the Ariane 5 Evolution version, without the upper storable propellant stage, allowing injection of 20.5 t into a 30 km x 300 km orbit, 51.60° transfer path.
• At separation from the launcher, Ariane 5 delivers an activation order to initialise onboard navigation. At the first apogee the ATV raises perigee to 400 km to stabilise the orbit.
• The ATV deploys its solar arrays and brings itself to the altitude of the International Space Station (350-460 km).
• About 90 min before the ATV enters the approach ellipsoid, integrated operations begin and mission authority is transferred to the Mission Control Centre in Houston or in Moscow
• Beginning 30 km from the Station, the ATV performs final approach and docking maneuvers automatically over a period of 5 h, with either automatic or manual capability from the Space Station crew to trigger a collision avoidance manoeuvre should any problem occur at ATV or Station level.
• Upon detection of the first contact between the ATV docking system and the Station, the ATV thrusts to ensure its capture and then triggers the automatic sequence of docking operations to the aft port of the Russian Service Module.

Attatched Phase

The following attached phase lasts up to six months.
While the ATV is in the dormant mode, cargo is unloaded manually by the crew through a pressurised passageway. Station refueling operations are powered and controlled by the Station via specific hardware interfaces in sequence: integrity checks, line venting, fluid transfer and line purging.

The ATV is reactivated during the attitude control and reboost operations. These operations can employ either the main propulsion system (four 490 N thrusters) or the attitude control system (twenty 220 N thrusters).

Departure

After departure from the Station, the ATV automatically brings itself back in the Earth's atmosphere. The load of up to 5.5 t of waste from the Station will be safely consumed during reentry.

Control

Ground processing will take place in Europe and at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. All ATV operations are monitored from the ATV Control Centre in Europe via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system. Flight operations during the free flight phase will be controlled from the ATV Control Centre in Europe.

 When approaching the International Space Station and until docking control will be taken over by either the Russian Control Centre in Moscow and/ or by the Space Station Control Center in Houston.

Planning

The ATV will be launched for the first time in mid 2003. This maiden launch will include specific mission demonstration objectives for final qualification of the ATV mission.

From mid 2003 onwards, it will serve the International Space Station about 8 times until 2013 or more, depending on the Station's lifetime extension.

Further Viewing

• Vehicle Description and Subsystems
• Development of the ATV
• ATV Images