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European Space Agency

Press Release

2003: a challenging year to build Jules Verne
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31 January 2003

Today, about 90 percent of the hardware for Jules Verne, Europe's
first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spaceship that is to fly
towards the International Space Station (ISS) in September 2004, is
already built. 

The different parts and elements of the first in a series of eight
ATVs have been manufactured and are progressively being tested and
assembled in 10 different European countries including Russia, where
the ATV docking mechanism, refuelling system and associated
electronics are being produced. 

"2003 is a crucial year for integration and building the real
spacecraft. The 20-tonne Jules Verne will be ready a year from now for 
its final test campaign", said Patrice Amadieu, ESA's ATV Deputy
Project Manager. 

The ATV will provide ISS some 7.5 tonnes of equipment, fuel, food,
water and air for the Station's crew. It will also remove waste from
the Station and re-boost it to a higher altitude to compensate for
atmospheric drag. The ATV, which is considered to be the most complex
space vehicle ever developed in Europe, can be launched on any version 
of the powerful Ariane 5 launcher.

To keep up with the ATV programme's heavy schedule, hundreds of
technicians and engineers are working - up to two shifts - in several
industrial centres across Europe under the supervision of the Prime
Contractor EADS Launch Vehicles (France).

Les Mureaux (F): testing ATV electrical simulator
-------------------------------------------------
In Les Mureaux, at EADS- LV's facilities, 50 km west of Paris, the
Electrical Test Model mock-up, which replicates the avionics and the
on-board electronics of the ATV, has started its testing in December
in the Functional Simulation Facility. This facility includes up to 30 
electronics racks. The Functional Simulation Facility is controlled by 
a team of 20 people and will test the ATV's electronic 'brain' and 
simulate, through computers, the navigation and flight dynamics during 
all possible nominal and off-nominal scenarios of the spaceship.

This key facility, which combines the Electrical Test Model and the
Functional Simulation Facility, will permanently be available at Les
Mureaux to simulate, on the ground, any orbital scenarios of the 8 ATV 
missions planned between 2004 and 2013.

In March, the flight hardware and electronics components of the
Russian ATV docking mechanism and refuelling system will also be
integrated and tested in the Functional Simulation Facility. 


Torino (I): flight hardware assembly
------------------------------------
In parallel, the flight hardware is being methodically assembled. 

In Turin, (Italy), the ATV pressurised cargo carrier - the forward
half of the ATV where the cargo will be stored and where astronauts
will be able to work - is taking shape.

Next June, the Russian systems, built by RSC Energia in Moscow, will
be shipped to Turin and integrated to the cargo carrier.

Once checked, the entire front pressurised module of Jules Verne will
be delivered in October to Astrium's Space Infrastructure Division
site in Bremen, Germany.


Bremen (D): integration propulsion bay
-------------------------------------- 
At the Astrium facility in Bremen, the integration work of building
the ATV propulsion bay was started in August 2002 and will keep going
until September this year.

The first flight avionics bay, developed and integrated by Astrium in
Toulouse (F) will be delivered in August to Bremen facility.

The mating of the two parts in September will make up the so-called
Spacecraft Segment, which includes propulsion systems, electrical
power, computers and most of the avionics.


Noordwijk (NL): testing Jules Verne in November 2003
----------------------------------------------------
The coupling of the two main ATV modules (Spacecraft Segment and
Cargo Carrier), scheduled for early November, will create Jules
Verne. 

Once transferred to ESA's test facilities in Noordwijk, (The
Netherlands) in January 2004, the ESA spaceship, as a whole, will
undergo extensive acoustics, functional and qualification tests until
June before shipment to the launch site in French Guiana.

"We are working to be ready for launch at the end of August. But in
fact, the actual launch, according to the International Space Station
manifest, is scheduled on September 27 in Kourou, which gives us a
small margin to solve any unexpected issues", says Mr Amadieu. 

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