ESA’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle will be launched on today. Watch it here live. This flight is representing the third of five back-to-back launches to the International Space Station in a 2-month period, the European Space Agency stands ready to the launch the ATV-2 (Automated Transfer Vehicle 2) spacecraft on a multi-month mission to deliver thousands of pounds of supplies to the leading orbital outpost. The mission will also hold the distinction of being flown to orbit on the 200th Ariane rocket launch, the 56th launch for the workhorse Ariane 5 variant. Nasaspaceflight.com has great pages for the details of this mission.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments. In addition, ATVs can re-boost the station into a higher orbit.

ATV-2

The Automated Transfer Vehicle is to ferries propellants, food, water and equipment to the ISS. Once docked, it uses its own engines to correct the station’s orbit, compensating for a regular loss of altitude due to drag and contributes to collision and debris avoidance. At the end of its mission it is filled with waste, de-docked and burns up as it heads back into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The first ATV, Jules Verne, was successfully launched in March 2008. ESA has already contracted suppliers to produce at least four more ATV's to be flown until 2015. A total of seven ATVs could eventually be launched to the International Space Station, mission managers said. Further development of the ATV towards a cargo return version and a human launch version are now being studied. Atruium has great 3D visualization of the ATV

Each ATV weighs 20.7 tonnes at launch and has a cargo capacity of 8 tonnes

1,500 kilograms to 5,500 kilograms of dry cargo (re-supply goods, scientific payload, etc.),
Up to 840 kilograms of water,
Up to 100 kilograms of gas (nitrogen, oxygen, air), with up to two gases per flight,
Up to 4,700 kilograms (10,000 lb) of propellant for the re-boost maneuver and refueling the station. The ATV propellant used for re-boost (monomethylhydrazine fuel and N2O4 oxidizer) is of a different type from the payload Russian refueling propellant (UDMH fuel and N2O4 oxidizer).

ESA’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle, will be launched on today, 15 February 2011, at 22:13 GMT (23:13 CET) by an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou to deliver critical supplies and re-boost the International Space Station. Live stream will start at 21:57 GMT (22:57 CET).

According to current mission planning, Johannes Kepler will dock with the Space Station on Wednesday, 23 February, and stay in orbit for almost four months.

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