GreenBkk.com Tech | Europe's 'Kepler' prepares for lift-off

Europe's 'Kepler' prepares for lift-off

By Matthew Knight for CNN

(CNN) -- Europe's heaviest-ever payload will blast off into space on Tuesday as the European Space Agency (ESA) launches its latest Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).

The unmanned spaceship is the ESA's first operational ATV and will deliver over seven tons of essential supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

Named after the 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler, the ATV is the successor to the "Jules Verne" ATV spacecraft which completed a qualification flight in 2008.

Showtime for "Jules Verne"

Measuring 10 meters high and 4.5 meters wide, the €450 million ($610 million) "Kepler" weighs over 20 tons in total and is the biggest second spacecraft to visit the ISS after the NASA's Space Shuttle.

It is scheduled to dock at the ISS eight days after launch from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana, South America.

Watch the ATV Kepler launch online

The mission is an important landmark for the ESA, says the ATV mission director, Kris Chapple.

"Obviously, with the Shuttle retiring soon every opportunity you have to bring cargo to the station is very important for the ISS," Chapple said.

Using the ESA's launch vehicle, Ariane 5, the ATV will be launched to an orbit of 260 kilometers where the two vessels will divide.

Once separated, the ATV will deploy a 4.5 kilowatt solar array spanning 22 meters and a communications antenna which will power and guide it to a docking port at the ISS.

The ATV's cargo includes over four tons of propellant, 1,600 kilograms of dry goods and 100 kilograms of oxygen.

It will stay at the ISS until early June when it will be loaded with liquid waste and begin its journey back towards Earth, burning up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean.

The hope one day, Chapple says, is for the ESA to create space vehicles which can re-enter the atmosphere, like the soon-to-be retired Space Shuttle.

"But it will be a financial and political decision if the ESA go in this direction," he said.

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)