ATV Passes Docking Simulations / ESA TV Exchanges / 10-11-2006
The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:
10-Nov-06 09:45 – 10:00 GMT
ATV Passes Docking Simulations
ESA TV Exchanges
Background information on the transmission:
Replay 1: 10 November 16:00-16:15 GMT
Replay 2: 11 November 11:30-11:45 GMT
Next summer, ESA’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle ATV will bring food, water and equipment to the Space Station ISS. It’s docking will be fully automatic, with no possibility for the astronauts to perform a manual docking – though they can push a “red button” in case they want to stop the docking process and the ATV to retract.
The decisive full-scale tests of the automated docking between the ATV and the ISS are being passed since August at Europe?s largest ship hull test facility, west of Paris.
Inside a 600-metre long building, a 120-tonne mobile platform controlled with millimetre precision, enables the continuous tridimensional approach between the two space vehicles, from a range of several hundred metres to within docking contact conditions.
This ESA TV Exchange documents one of these docking tests, including soundbites by ESA Project Manager John Ellwood, and former ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy.
The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS48487.pdf
A WMV preview file is online under http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mphi/ATV_TRIALS_08-11-06_wmphigh.wmv
This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm
More background information can be found on http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/index.html.
Transmission details:EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)
Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)
SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4
For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.
