European Space Agency Launches Robotic Freighter
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The European Space Agency said it launched a robotic freighter vehicle yesterday designed to supply the International Space Station with cargo, fuel, and oxygen. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), dubbed Jules Verne, blasted off aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, the agency said in a statement. It is now circling the earth in the same orbit as the space station, although at a lower altitude, and is scheduled to dock with it on April 3, the agency said. An optical system will guide Jules Verne during its final approach, Arianespace said in a separate statement.
