ATV Control Centre readies for Europe's first-ever automated docking

Published: Feb. 22, 2008, 2:30 p.m.

b"The launch of ESA's Jules Verne ATV, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle for the International Space Station, is planned for early March. The ATVs are the largest and most powerful spacecraft ever built in Europe. They will be controlled from Toulouse where CNES, the French space agency, operates a dedicated control centre on behalf of ESA."