ATV’s Docking Dexterity Demands Diligence

The challenge is enormous for the Jules Verne ATV… a successful first attempt at the automated docking with the International Space Station (ISS) will depend on very tight teamwork, excellent coordination and a superb understanding of the spacecraft and its complex automated control systems. The European Space Agency‘s (ESA) Jules Verne ATV is now lining up for the docking and is in a parking orbit some 200-m ahead of the ISS. The folk at mission control must pace the spacecraft through two pending and crucial demo dockings, moving ever closer to the ISS, and then go for the final and actual rendezvous and docking attempt on April 3rd. The ATV’s automated Collision Avoidance Maneuver (CAM) capability was successfully tested, in-flight, on March 14th.