14 DAY TRIAL // The European Space Agency reported in a press release yesterday that the Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne reached the designated parking position to meet up with the International Space Station. Jules Verne will maintain this position until the end of the mission STS-123, when the space shuttle Endeavor will return to Earth. The ATV is currently 2,000 kilometers ahead of the ISS in Earth's orbit and will begin the approach to the ISS with a two day demonstration of the rendezvous procedure.
In the night before, the Jules Verne ATV reached the same altitude as the ISS and executed a full stop in relation to the position of the space station, the ESA reports. During the parking procedure the ATV passed by the space station at a distance of only 30 kilometers.
Allegedly, after reaching the designated spot the ATV ran three small boosts to make minor adjustments to the orbital trajectory of the spacecraft. Alberto Novelli, ESA's Mission Director at the ATV Control Center says that Jules Verne reached the parking position at 13:00 CET yesterday. Also, during the parking procedure the second propulsion chain was used to help with during orbital maneuvering.
"In doing the boosts we have tested all the pressure regulators and that worked perfectly fine. So as of today we have the proof that the propulsion system as a whole, including all the redundancies, is working fine," said Novelli.
Also in the press release, ESA states that the data on the performance of Jules Verne since its launch ten days ago has been shared with the ISS partners.
"We will discuss the data in a meeting with the partners on 25 March. In principle that will give us the go-ahead to continue with the first rendezvous demonstration day," explained Novelli. "As of today, this report is green and a 'go' from our side on all the criteria."
The STS-123 mission is supposed to end on March 26. The next day, the Jules Verne ATV will resume its schedule and start the approach to the ISS. On March 29 and 31, it will execute a series of rendezvous demonstrations, after which it will dock with the ISS on April 3rd.