Automated Transfer Vehicle

The Automated Transfer Vehicle was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency and used for space cargo transport between 2008 and 2015. It was launched five times, always on an Ariane 5, and supplied the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, food and research equipment while also reboosting the station into a higher orbit. Airbus Defence and Space was the principal manufacturer, leading a consortium of subcontractors and building the vehicles in its facility in Bremen, while Thales Alenia Space made the pressurized cargo carrier in Turin. The five vehicles were named Jules Verne, Johannes Kepler, Edoardo Amaldi, Albert Einstein and Georges Lemaître. It was an uncrewed and highly automated platform that was never used to carry passengers. The European Space Agency announced in 2012 that the programme would end after the fifth launch, and the design became the basis of the European Service Module for the Orion spacecraft.