[Satellite Today – 3-10-08] Arianespace successfully placed Jules Verne, the European Space Agency‘s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) in space, but an on-board computer shut down one of the four propulsion systems soon after reaching orbit, ESA officials reported March 10.
    The vehicle was designed to bring supplies to the International Space Station such as water, air, food, propellants for the Russian section, spare parts and experimental hardware, and to reboost the ISS into its nominal orbit.
    According to press reports, during the propulsion system’s activation sequence moments after reaching orbit, Jules Verne’s computers noticed a slight pressure difference between the ship’s hydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer being fed through valves. The suspect chain controls seven of 28 attitude control jets and one the ship’s four main engines.
    Managers have ordered controllers to temporarily halt plans for the vessel’s first major engine firing March 10. The maneuver was the first in a series of burns designed to raise the ship’s altitude, culminating in the craft’s arrival in a parking orbit about 1,200 miles in front of the station by March 19.
    Officials said the propulsion problem would not delay the vehicle’s docking with the ISS. Jules Verne was not supposed to dock until the shuttle Endeavour’s assembly mission to the complex ended on March 24.
    Arianespace delayed the launch of the ATV by 24 hours on March 3 in order to allow additional checks of the vehicle.