Colleagues from Astrium in the ATV fuelling room Credit: ESA/C. Beskow

Colleagues from Astrium in the ATV fuelling room: Mark Kelly and Bernardo Laurenzana Credit: ESA/C. Beskow

Today, the extended team of ESA, Astrium, and CNES engineers and technicians working on fuelling ATV Edoardo Amaldi conducted an initial inspection as part of preparing for actually pumping the fuel into ATV’s tanks.

If all goes according to plan, loading of ATV’s UDMH fuel (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine – a highly potent rocket fuel) starts in the morning of 13 January. Handling UDHM means everyone must wear protective suits.