I spent most of yesterday morning watching NASA TV, because they were showing something rather exciting — “Demo Day 2” for the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The unmanned “space truck” performed a series of maneuvers that brought it to within just 35 feet of the International Space Station before it started an escape burn that took it sailing away into space again. It will repeat the process and actually dock on Thursday.
I’m not involved in the ATV project at all, but I do work in rendezvous, and the coolest thing about this vehicle is that its rendezvous and docking is entirely automated — something the US has not yet done with any great success. (The space shuttle is flown manually once it gets within a few thousand feet of the station.)
One of my friends has been working on this vehicle for his entire career (8 years). One of my managers said he remembers attending one of the first ATV technical interchange meetings in 1992. This vehicle has been a long time coming, so it’s awesome to see it operating so well. I know it has to feel incredibly rewarding to those who have been working on it for years. For so long it seemed like it was never going to launch. But suddenly there it is, floating next to the ISS.
I love the above photo because, of course, it doesn’t take much imagination to turn it into this:
Wow, it looks like the X-Wing fighter from Star Wars. Where’s the death star?