HOUSTON - Europe's
first cargo ship bound for the International Space Station (ISS) has caught up
to the orbiting lab and parked itself off the outpost's bow.
Launched
late March 8, the European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned space
freighter Jules Verne caught up to the station on Wednesday, appearing as a distant,
bright dot as it passed by the ISS toward a parking spot 1,200 miles (2,000 km)
ahead of the orbiting lab.
The 21-ton cargo
ship, the first of a new ESA fleet of Automated
Transfer Vehicles, is awaiting the departure to NASA's space shuttle
Endeavour, which is docked at the ISS for a record 12-day stay. The shuttle's seven-astronaut
crew is wrapping up work to deliver a new crewmember, Japanese room and a Canadian
maintenance robot to the high-flying lab.
"The spacecraft is functioning perfectly, the team is
very well trained and we are looking forward to an excellent first docking
attempt on 3 April," said ESA mission director Alberto Novelli, of the ATV Control
Center in Toulouse, France, in a statement.
Endeavour's
astronaut crew is slated to undock from the ISS late Monday, March 24, clearing
the way for two demonstrations of Jules Verne's automated rendezvous systems.
On March
29, ESA flight controllers will maneuver Jules Verne to a spot about 11,482
feet (3,500 meters) away from its docking port at the aft of the space
station's Russian-built Zvezda service module. If all goes well, the spacecraft
will be cleared for its second demonstration on March 31, where it is expected to
close within about 40 feet (12 meters) from its berth, back way, then execute
an escape maneuver to be commanded by flight controllers and astronauts aboard
the station.
Only after
passing both tests will the unmanned Jules Verne supply ship be approved for
its April 3 docking, mission managers said.
Launched
atop a European Ariane 5 rocket, the 1.3 billion euro ($1.9 billion) Jules
Verne is the first of up to seven ATV spacecraft to haul supplies to the ISS.
The massive
spacecraft is about the size of a London double-decker bus and can carry
three times the amount of food, equipment and other vital supplies than
Russia's unmanned Progress freighters. Shaped like a cylinder with X-wing-like
solar arrays, the new cargo ship is 32 feet (10 meters) long and almost 15 feet
(4.5 meters) wide.
The vehicle
is in good health despite a propulsion system glitch that shut down four of its
28 rocket thrusters early in the flight. Mission managers switched the
spacecraft to a backup system to recover the thrusters.
Astronauts
aboard Endeavour, meanwhile, had a day off Wednesday as they prepared for a
Thursday spacewalk to test a space worthy goo gun for shuttle
heat shield repairs. Mission Control has sent the astronauts several notes
about Jules Verne's progress, including a Wednesday message hinting at the
robotic spacecraft's impatience to dock at the ISS.
"Oh and by the way, ATV/Jules Verne has arrived in its
parking spot, 1,000 miles in front of you, and is eagerly awaiting your
departure so it can make its approach," flight controllers wrote Wednesday.
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