The Edoardo Amaldi ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle

Automated Transfer Vehicle

The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency . ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments...

 003 (ATV-003), is a Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft

Unmanned resupply spacecraft

Unmanned resupply spacecraft are a special kind of robotic spacecraft that operate autonomously without a human crew, designed to support space station operation...

 named after Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 Edoardo Amaldi

Edoardo Amaldi

Edoardo Amaldi was an Italian physicist.He was born in Carpaneto Piacentino, son of Ugo Amaldi, professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, and Luisa Basini....

. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2012, on a mission to supply the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo. It is the third ATV to be built, following the Jules Verne

Jules Verne ATV

The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . The ATV was named after the French science-fiction author Jules Verne...

 (2008) and the Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler ATV

The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . It was named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. The spacecraft was launched on 17 February 2011, on a mission to supply the International Space...

 (2011). It is currently undergoing launch preparations at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou

Kourou

Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.Kourou is the location of the Guiana Space Centre, France and ESA's main spaceport.-Geography:...

, French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

, where it arrived in August 2011.

Edoardo Amaldi will be launched on an Ariane 5ES

Ariane 5

Ariane 5 is, as a part of Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit . Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales...

 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in February 2012. The launch will be conducted by Arianespace

Arianespace

Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial space transportation company. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane 5 rocket launcher as part of the Ariane programme....

 on behalf of the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

.

ATV missions

Designation	Name	Launch date	Docking date	Re-entry
ATV-001	Jules Verne Jules Verne ATV The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . The ATV was named after the French science-fiction author Jules Verne...	9 March 2008	Docked 3 April 2008	29 September 2008
ATV-002	Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler ATV The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 , was an unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency . It was named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. The spacecraft was launched on 17 February 2011, on a mission to supply the International Space...	16 February 2011	Docked 24 February 2011	21 June 2011
ATV-003	Edoardo Amaldi	29 February 2012	Planned	Planned
ATV-004	Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ATV The Albert Einstein ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 004 , is a European unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft named after German-born physicist Albert Einstein. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2013, on a mission to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, and...	February 2013	Planned	Planned
ATV-005	unnamed	February 2014	Planned	Planned

Sources:

See also

• Automated Transfer Vehicle
  Automated Transfer Vehicle
  The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency . ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments...
  
  
• ATV-001, ATV-002
• H-II Transfer Vehicle
  H-II Transfer Vehicle
  The H-II Transfer Vehicle , called , is an unmanned resupply spacecraft used to resupply the Kibō Japanese Experiment Module and the International Space Station . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been working on the design since the early 1990s. The first mission, HTV-1, was originally...
  
  
• Progress spacecraft
• List of unmanned spaceflights to the ISS

External links

• ESA - ATV