PARIS (Reuters) - A European supply vessel carrying over five tonnes of freight docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday in a major advance for Europe's space programme.
"I am incredibly proud of and pleased for our Europeanpartners with this demonstration of a successful automateddocking of the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) cargo vehiclewith the ISS," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.
"Only Russia has previously achieved a successful automateddocking in space ... The ATV marks the arrival of Europe as afull-fledged space power," Griffin said in a statement.
U.S. space shuttles are due to be taken out of service in2010 leaving a gap of several years before the U.S. puts intooperation a new generation of spacecraft expected in 2015.
Four more European ATV's are being planned, but more may beneeded to keep the space station supplied.
In a news conference from Houston, NASA official BrianSmith described the docking as "an outstanding mission."
'JULES VERNE'
Dubbed 'Jules Verne' in honour of the visionary 19thcentury French science fiction writer, officials are countingon the ATV programme, in which $2 billion (1 billion pounds)has been invested so far, to open the way to further Europeanspace exploration.
The ATV, built by a consortium led by the space unit ofaerospace group EADS, carries three times the cargo of Russia'sProgress vehicle and will play a major role supplying the ISS.
The ATV will remain docked to the space station for sixmonths as astronauts remove its cargo and fill it with rubbishfrom the station. It carries food, water, supplies and fuel.
It will then be thrust back toward earth, burning up onre-entry. Any remaining debris will be targeted to a remotearea of the Pacific Ocean.
The ATV will also be used as a 'space jack'. Residualgravity from the earth causes the space station to fall about2.5 kilometres a month. Jules Verne will ignite thrusters tolift the station back to a higher altitude.
Thursday's docking with the ISS was overseen by controlstations in France, the United States and Russia. The twovehicles travelled at 28,000 km per hour, underlining thetechnical challenge of the manoeuvre.
"One of the strategic reasons why the ESA was so keen tohave its own ATV was that this technology is exactly the kindyou need to go and rendezvous with Mars," said John Ellwood,ESA's ATV Project Manager in a Web cast transmission.
"We are going to have to have automatic rendezvous anddocking near Mars. And ATV shows that the technology works andthat we can do it in Europe," Ellwood said.
The ATV was launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket fromEurope's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeastcoast of South America on March 9.
The space station, which is about 60 percent complete, is a$100-billion project by 15 nations. Next year, the station'screw is expected to go from three to six members.
The ISS has regularly come in for criticism because of therising costs linked to keeping astronauts permanently in space.Critics say unmanned space exploration would achieve equalscientific results at a considerably lower cost.
(Reporting by Alexander Miles; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
