“JULES VERNE”-- Special delivery from Europe

Update for April 3rd--Docking occured this morning. And so far, all is well.  

April 1, 2008—The crew of the International Space Station is putting the new European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, called Jules Verne, through its paces this week. No one is saying specifically, but the slow and easy pace may be to avoid to what happened to the Russian Space Station Mir in 1997.

The thirty-foot long “Jules Verne” is a robot cargo ship, something like the unmanned Russian “Progress” vehicles that bring up food, fuel, and equipment for the Space Station. The difference is that the new European vehicle is three times bigger, and untested. Docking is set for this Thursday, following two days of practice approaches and escape maneuvers. NASA apparently doesn’t want a repeat of the mishap between the older Mir Station and a wayward Progress ship.

As I write in “Final Countdown”, that older vehicle was on remote control when it flew off course and struck Mir’s science module called Spektr. Astronaut Michael Foale and his two cosmonaut crewmates could almost immediately feel the change in air pressure in their ears. Spektr had been punctured and the atmosphere was venting out into space. Their only alternative was to shut the hatch, cutting off Spektr and all the equipment and personal items inside forever.

It would be nice to avoid that on ISS.

ESA plans to send up one of the new ATV cargo ships, with their characteristic X-shaped solar panels once every seventeen months or so.

Again, if you’re visiting Boston on April 12th, I look forward to seeing you at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History. I’ll be talking about “Final Countdown” as the keynote address for a fundraiser for the Mount Washington Observatory. If you, or someone you know, would care to attend, click here for more information.

http://www.mountwashington.org/events/boston/

More to come.

Photo courtesy of the European Space Agency