Europe's contribution to the International Space Station finally lifts off, aboard a modified Ariane 5 Rocket.

This paves the way for Europe to send men to space as well without needing the USA or Russia to offer space to our would-be astronauts, and of even returning the favour whilst the US looks to replace the Shuttle.

Courtesy BBC: LINK to article




Night lift-offs are always the most spectacular!!! Link to Lift-Off video

ATV is actually the second major European contribution to the ISS (don't forget Columbus is up there working now!). Very happy to see this!

A pretty sight last night, huh?
Congrats to Arianespace and ESA and all the contractors.

It'll be something to see her perform over the next month as she goes through her test operations and finally, docking with the ISS!
And of course, our Japanese partners, as well as another of Canada's magnificent pieces of work, will be heading up in a couple days, making the ISS fully engaged with all partners...

...and Expedition 17 launching from Russia shortly, and Expedition 16 going home to Russia as well...wow.

A heck of time to be alive, if you ask me!

is this the "rubbish truck" it takes cargo up to the ISS, then is filled with all the rubbish, then sent back to earth were it burns up on re-entry?

That's one way of putting it, steve...

That is in fact a function of the vehicle.

Very good new! This is maybe the dawn of a new era of low orbital freighters.

Oh, it most certainly is, Mekorig!

Time to blow the European trumpet here (even though the UK does not contribute to the ISS in anyway). There have been more major contributions to the ISS than just Columbus and the ATV.

Nodes 1 and 2 (and the yet to be launched Node 3) were all built in Italy although funded by NASA.

The three Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules MPLM), Leonardo, Raffaello and Donatello were also built in Italy. These are modules which are carried to the ISS on board the Shuttle and then attached to the ISS by the RMS robot arm.

The MPLMs carry out a similar task to the ATV in as much as they carry cargo to the station and return material to the Earth. Unlike the ATV they only remain attached for a few days (whilst the shuttle is docked). The ATVs will remain attached for up to 6 months at a time. The MPLM is returned to the shuttles cargo bay before it undocks and is returned to Earth.

The retirement of the shuttles in 2010 means that the MPLM s will also be retired.

In the future there will be a plethora of cargo vehicles which will be used to resupply the ISS. As well as the Russian Progress and European ATV there will also be the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which is currently under development. It will be able to carry 6 tonnes to the ISS. It should make its first demonstration flight in 2009 and then fly once or twice a year. NASA also has a programme called the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project. The aim of this programme is to kick start a privately funded programme to develop a cargo vehicle to supply the ISS, with NASA buying from flights from the commercial supplier. NASA has signed a contract with Orbital Sciences and will give $170 million to supplement its privately-funded efforts. It is possible that a manned spacecraft may also eventually emerge from this programme

You sure are right, Waspie!

Kudos and all support for blowing the European trumpet here!

...p.s., Those U.K. born astronauts that have flown sure have contributed!!!

True, but it's a shame that they could not do so as British nationals.

Yes, I know....and I agree with you.
It's frustrating to me, in that there's little that I as an American can do to affect that...save hope for the future!
I can only imagine what it's like for you, being a British national!

mhm. Good to see that there is a new player in the space game. The more players, the more competition and that leads to more advancement.

Great to see.

Wait, the U.K does contribute to the ISS.

We fund part of the ESA's budget, doesn't that make us contributors? Or does our money go onto other specific projects?

Contributions to individual projects are voluntary. The UK opted out of all manned spaceflight programmes and the launcher development (if you get a chance to look at a high quality image of an Ariane 5 take a look at the flags that appear on it... there is no Union Flag) way back in the Thatcher era, a decision which has not been reversed by the following 3 Prime Ministers.

As a result of the UK's refusal to help fund manned programmes UK citizens are not eligible to be ESA astronauts.

The UK does take part in unmanned projects (for example the Huygens lander which landed on Saturn's moon Titan carried British instruments) and also specialised in communications satellites.

Ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

It's kind of pathetic how we don't take part in this, but waste so much money elsewhere.

That's an interesting statement Bender. True, I'll admit. If I were a British national I would say the same thing...with some anger in my voice.

But you know, if and when the U.K. gets into the act, people are going to complain about wasting money on space projects when there's so much else the money could be used for!

You can't win in this business.

In the U.S., we've always had a somewhat vocal minority complaining about the fact that we waste too much money on space!
It's all crap, of course. If you ever took a look at the IMMENSE U.S. Federal budget, you'd realize that the amount of money in NASA's budget is a paltry, virtually insignificant piece of the Federal pie...

You're damned if you do, and you're damned iof you don't!

Funny how its all seems be how`s on first and where`s my cut, and I did this you did this,In a perfect world you could look at it like we are all mankind doing sometimes bad things but most of the time good things to improve our lifes. We are all on the same space ship earth . when will we ever learn that? DONTEATUS p.s. dosnt hurt to try a little harder.