Universe Today: ATV is on't way

Ian O'Neill

UNIVERSE TODAY

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has been successfully launched into orbit. The ATV, also known as "Jules Verne", is Europe's largest and most complex spaceship ever. Weighing in at 20 tons, the ATV needed a big push to get it into space, so the largest member of the Arianespace-built rocket family was called into use, the Ariane-5. The unmanned ATV is now en-route to the International Space Station, to make some deliveries…

(Including a cool little animation of the entire mission courtesy of ESA.)

• See the launch in a short report from the BBC.
• See the entire animated ATV mission, from launch, docking to re-entr (ESA).

Read the rest from the Best HERE.