The Star Trek Times

NASA, via Associated Press - The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle approached the International Space Station on Monday in a rehearsal for a docking scheduled for Thursday.

Managers of the International Space Station on Wednesday cleared Europe’s new Jules Verne cargo ship for its first docking with the orbiting research outpost.

A New Supply Ship for the Space Station

After assessing results of two days of trial maneuvers around the station, including having the two craft close to within 36 feet of one another, the Mission Management Team of international partners in the project gave approval for an attempt on Thursday to link the ships.

The Jules Verne, named for the visionary French author, is the first of a new class of robot station supply ships called Automatic Transfer Vehicles or A.T.V.’s. The robot ship was built by the member nations of the European Space Agency as one of Europe’s major contributions to the international station.

“We have proven that Jules Verne’s systems are safe, reliable and ready to dock to the station,” John Ellwood, the A.T.V. Project Manager for Europe said after getting approval to proceed. “Everyone has worked very hard to get to this point.”

The Jules Verne is scheduled to dock with the station’s Russian-built Zvezda service module on Thursday at 10:41 a.m. Eastern time, and then firmly lock in place about a half-hour later. If for some reason the linkup does not occur as planned, the next attempt will be made on Saturday, Mr. Ellwood said.

The ship maneuvers and dock itself automatically using GPS and optical guidance systems for close approach to the station. A twin laser system fires pulses of light at reflectors positioned on the end of Zvezda to aim the craft towards the space station. The rendezvous and docking are monitored from a control center in Toulouse, France, in cooperation with the Russian space station control center near Moscow and the NASA center in Houston.

Extra precautions are necessary because the robot ship, which weighs 21 tons on Earth, could do substantial damage to the station in a collision or other mishap.

The Jules Verne, launched on March 9, is 32 feet long and 14.6 feet wide at its largest diameter, is equipped with four solar arrays arranged in an X shape spanning 73 feet. It has four large aft engines and a series of smaller thrusters for maneuvering and fine control. It is the first of at least five robot cargo craft that the Europeans will dispatch to the station, carrying 7.5 tons of fuel, oxygen, food, clothing, equipment and other essentials.