Protective fairing is lowered over ATV-3

ESA astronaut André Kuipers and his Russian Expedition 30 crewmate Oleg Kononenko are currently participating in an on board drill in preparation for one of the major milestones of the PromISSe mission – the arrival of Automated Transfer Vehicle Edoardo Amaldi.

Europe’s cargo spacecraft, ATV for short, is set to deliver new supplies to the International Space Station next week, including food, water, fuel and equipment.

The third spacecraft of it’s type, ATV-3 was yesterday given the go-ahead for lift-off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Friday 23 May at 05:34 CET (04:34 UT). The ATV is set to dock with the ISS five days later.

ATV-2 during approach to the ISS in February 2011

Docking

André and Oleg will monitor the spacecraft as it approaches for docking early on Thursday 29 March (the exact docking time will be known after launch on Friday). Today’s on board training drill for this activity is to ensure that they are fully prepared for this complex operation.

ATV’s cargo

ATV Edoardo Amaldi carries into orbit some 4395 kg of fluid cargo, including fuel, water and gas, and 2201 kg of dry cargo including food, equipment, experiment hardware and personal items for the crew.

More about ATV Edoardo Amaldi‘s cargo:
– ATV blog: The Big ATV Cargo Post v3.0
– Astrium website: Rummaging in the ATV’s cargo hold

Video: ATV-3 mission overview

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The launch will be streamed live via the ESA Portal, coverage starts 30 minutes before the launch.