Astrium tests cargo spacecraft

The Johannes Kepler, as the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is dubbed, is being tested at Astrium’s facility in Bremen.

The delivery date for Johannes Kepler has been slated for November 2010. Astrium is working on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) on the development and production of ATVs. Astrium has been contracted to produce a further three ATV transport vehicles for the ESA by 2015.

‘After successfully integrating the propulsion module and avionics unit into the spacecraft over the last month, we can now start testing Johannes Kepler as a complete unit for the first time,’ said Astrium’s Michael Menking, senior vice-president and head of orbital systems and exploration. ‘To do that, the spacecraft and logistics modules will be connected to each other in a soft configuration, i.e. using electrical connecting cables.’

The purpose of these tests is to verify the functionality and flightworthiness not only of the hardware components but also of the flight software. The latter is responsible for the entire mission management and particularly the fully automatic docking to the ISS.