In maiden voyage, European space freighter docks with ISS

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

TOULOUSE, France (AFP) — Europe's robot freighter successfully docked on its maiden voyage Thursday with the International Space Station, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) hooked up with mankind's orbiting outpost at 1445 GMT, prompting cheers and applause to erupt at mission control in this southwestern French city.

Named after French science fiction pioneer Jules Verne and roughly the size of a London double-decker bus, the ATV is Europe's most ambitious venture in orbital transport and one of its costliest gambles in space.

"This is an historic moment," Yannick d'Escatha, the head of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), declared.

Closing the gap at six to seven centimetres (three to four...