A new European space freighter, the Jules Verne, had been cleared to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on April 3, 2008. Crews at mission control and ground officials were ready for the first attempt of the freighter linking up with the space station. It was a process that had both ground officials and crew working very hard to get to the point of docking to the space station. The freighter’s systems, after two successful test runs, have proven they are ready for linking up to the space station.
The freighter, a robot-like automated transfer vehicle, weighed in at nearly twenty tons. The Jules Verne was put through two test runs and passed successfully in southwestern France by ESA mission control before being launched. It was launched into space on March 9th, 2008. Its mission was to deliver food, water and supplies to the space station; enough that would last for several months. The cargo alone weighed in at 7.5 tons. It was designed to automatically dock with the orbital outpost known as Zvezda. The Zvezda is a Russian made module and is one of the earliest components of the International Space Station.
It was on April 3, 2008 that the Jules Verne successfully docked at the International Space Station. It is with the success of this docking that makes this freighter the first of newly designed spacecraft to visit the space station in nine years. Prior to this, is was only Russia’s spacecraft that flew missions to the space station. It is with this success of this automatic-docking technology that will be the key to building new spacecrafts in the future.
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