Even as ATV-3 is just approaching launch in March, the follow-on ATV-4 is already being prepared. ESA’s ATVs are playing a major role in supplying and maintaining the International Space Station – and we can’t leave the astronauts waiting, right?

The integrated cargo module (ICC) of ATV Albert Einstein just got shipped to Bremen, Germany, on 30 December. It was built in Turin, Italy, and is now going through final tests in Bremen. The cargo module represents about 60 percent of the spacecraft. The other parts, the propulsion and avionics modules, were built by Astrium directly in Bremen.

The International Space Station (ISS) depends on regular deliveries of experiment equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. In the cargo module just shipped to Bremen there will be water, gas, refuelling propellants and dry cargo. But ATVs are not only transport vehicles – astronauts dressed in regular clothing are able to access the pressurised part of the ICC during its joint orbital flight with the ISS, so it’s also an integral part of Station while docked.

ATV Albert Einstein will be launched in early 2013 from the Spaceport in Kourou, where the whole spacecraft will be shipped around August 2012.

See all images of the ATV-4 ICC shipping in Flickr.