First ATV Successfully De-Orbited, Burns Up As Planned In Reentry
Astrium has provided the European Space Agency (ESA) with an option to convert the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) robotic cargo ship into a manned spacecraft, the agency stated.
A wholly owned unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., Astrium at some point may provide an alternative means for U.S. and allied access to the International Space Station (ISS).
The company is examining how the ATV could be used to transport astronauts into space and bring them back safely.
This effort comes as the United States is about to lose its ability, for half a decade, to send astronauts into space, to the U.S.-built and -financed $100 billion space station.
While NASA won grudging permission from members of Congress to contract with Russia for Soyuz space transport services for American astronauts going to the space station in 2012 and later, recent Russian actions make U.S. lawmakers unhappy with that arrangement. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.)
An increasingly bellicose Russia invaded the former Soviet Union bloc state Georgia, and Russia has threatened to use nuclear arms to annihilate the European Missile Defense system that the United States intends to build in the Czech Republic (radar) and Poland (interceptors in ground silos).
U.S. legislators would be vastly more comfortable in buying space transport for American astronauts from Europe, an ally, than from the increasingly belligerent Russians, although some members of Congress ask why the money spent buying Soyuz transport services from the Russians couldn’t just as well be spent on continuing to fly the U.S. space shuttle fleet.
However, President Bush ordered the shuttles to stop flying in 2010, ensuring that NASA by itself — so far the only organization to put men on the moon — for half a decade won’t be able to get even one astronaut off the ground without buying him or her an airline ticket.
So the Europeans are offering a possible alternative means of accessing the space station.
Another potential alternative lies with private U.S.-based commercial space transport companies, such as Space Exploration Technologies Inc., or SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB]. NASA has supplied some seed money to those companies to develop cargo transport services to the space station, though it is uncertain whether one or both of them will be able to develop safe and dependable crew transport services before the next-generation U.S. spaceship system Orion-Ares begins its first manned flight in 2015.
Astrium also is looking at new options for carrying cargo to the space station, according to ESA.
The continental space agency only this year achieved a major success with the ATV when the first of the robotic vehicles launched and docked successfully with the space station.
After delivering a sizable load of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, the Jules Verne ATV successfully undocked and moved to a safe distance. Then the one-time-use, disposable ATV, according to plan, was sent back into the atmosphere to burn up over the South Pacific.
Astrium already is building the next ATV.
Company CEO Francois Auque hailed the ATV success.
“The Jules Verne mission is a series of technical achievements greeted by the international community,” he said. “From the launch of Ariane, through to the automatic docking procedure, the reboost [of the space station to a higher, sustainable orbit], and the final undocking maneuver which heralded the end of the ATV’s mission, Astrium has been the industrial force behind all of these achievements. These successes have allowed Europe to play its full role on board the ISS, alongside its major partners from the rest of the world.”
He also urged pushing ahead with making the ATV a manned spaceship.
“This mission is just the beginning,” Auque said. “Europe now has to take the necessary decisions to prepare the future of space transport and man’s exploration of space, and thus to consolidate its own position as a leading global space power.”
Astrium is currently building on behalf of ESA the second automated transfer vehicle at its sites in France and Germany. The vehicle will be launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket in 2010.
That first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched March 9, reached the space station on April 3, boosted the station to a higher orbit three times, and then undocked Sept. 5.