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Description

This is a spacecraft model.

Includes parts to build three models: ATV, ARIANE 5 and ISS.

Historical information from the Heller website:

The International Space Station is the most ambitious international scientific cooperation project ever undertaken jointly by ten European countries under the auspices of the ESA (European Space Agency), in partnership with the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada. From 2009, 6 astronauts will work and live in orbit in a habitable volume equivalent to 2 jumbo jets. Europe has planned to use the Ariane 5 launcher to launch its Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) totransfer supplies to the space station. Decided on in 1995, this automatic transfer vehicle will also be used as a towing vehicle to maintain the altitude of this orbital complex. Jules Verne will be the first of the five ATVs supplied by Europe up until 2015.

By propulsing the ATV into orbit, Ariane 5, which is the largest European launcher , will be used for the resupply missions of certain elements of the station. NASA will use its current shuttles until 2010, Russia its Soyouz, Proton and Zenit launchers and its manned capsules, Soyouz TM and its freight spacecraft Progress - -M. Japan will use its launcher H-II associated with a transfer vehicle called the HTV which is at present under development. The Jules Verne spacecraft is not only a technological challenge for the Europeans opening up new perspectives for future space exploration but is also the means for Europe to pay in kind, rather than cash, its contribution to the in-orbit operating costs. In exchange, the ESA will have the right to use the station.

Of the 5 laboratories from different countries, the ESA is supplying Columbus which will be operational at the start of 2008. For the first time, after 50 years of space conquest, scientists and engineers will be permanently present in space at an average altitude of 400 km in earth orbit. They will be able to conduct their scientific and technological studies without interruption onboard this orbital laboratory.

The Jules Verne spacecraft, with a highly innovative navigation technology , will be launched from the Kourou space station in French Guiana. It will navigate to and dock in totally automatic mode monitored by the crew with very high accuracy, on the Russian segment of the station. Once docked, the crew will exploit its resources for 6 months before using it for waste storage. After separation at the end of the mission, the ATV will be destroyed during controlled reentry into the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.