European supply ship en route to International Space Station

A European rocket blasted off late on Wednesday bearing a 20-tonne supply ship destined for a rendezvous with the manned International Space Station.

The super-charged Ariane 5 ES rocket departed from Kourou, French Guiana, just shy of 2151 GMT after an initial attempt the day before was scratched at the last minute due to a minor technical glitch with the fuelling system.

The lift-off had to take place at that time and no other.

“As we are going to the ISS so we have to leave the ground at a specific instant, so there is no launch window,” explained Arianespace Chairman Jean-Yves Le Gall minutes before the launch.

The first phase of the mission was declared a success after the rocket’s last stage fell away from the European Space Agency supply vessel exactly 64 minutes into the flight, somewhere over the Tasmanian Sea.

“Europe has again been extremely successful with the perfect orbiting of the ATV Johannes Kepler. This launch was exceptional,” Dr Le Gall said to rousing applause at the control centre in Kourou.

Named for the great 16th- and 17th-century German astro­nomer, the Johannes Kepler is the second Automated Transfer Vehicle that Arianespace will have delivered to the ISS.

The first was hoisted into space in March 2008.

Weighing in at more than 20 tonnes, it is by far the heaviest payload ever hoisted into orbit by an Ariane rocket, nearly 15 times heavier than the pencil-thin trailblazer catapulted into space in 1979.

The automated vehicle is slated to supply the ISS with life-sustaining air, food and spare parts, and to reposition the sprawling station – which, tugged by earth’s atmosphere, has lost altitude – into its optimal orbit.

It is currently around 360 kilometres above earth and needs boosting to some 400 kilometres.

“Ariane has completed its mission. Now ATV is starting its mission,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General.

Once separated from the launch vehicle the ATV is autonomous, using its own systems for energy and guidance in liaison with a control centre in Toulouse, southwestern France.

Within 30 minutes, it will have deployed four large solar panels which, along with onboard batteries, power the vehicle.

The unmanned supply ship is scheduled to dock with the ISS, a feat of precision unmatched by any other space power.

“We will be working at a speed of around 28,000 kilometres per hour and our approach will be at seven centimetres a second, so although we are moving at this high speed, we will really be approaching the ISS very gently,” said mission director Kris Capelle ahead of the launch.

Once emptied of its cargo, the supply ship – a cylinder 10 metres long and 4.5 metres in diameter – will then be used as a spare room and for storage, easing the cramped conditions for the ISS crew.