SFS News: ATV - the European ISS resupply ship

I suppose that the highe launch costs of Ariane have to do with the requirements of funding - the Falcons may reduce those requirements.

For SpaceX launching ATVs would increase the number of flights - they would contribute additional flights to their launch manifest and yield additional revenues. It would be interesting for them. And the ATVs are expendable. So there is no reason for them to not do it. The ATVs aren't no competitors to their Dragon because the amount of business is large enough for both vehicles.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

SpaceX is not going to launch ATV.

Aside from the points already raised ATV represents an income stream for Ariannespace and Europe will not want to spend money outside Europe. Also who will pay for modifications so that it can fly on Falcon?

SpaceX wants to market dragon so they wont want to make ATV cheaper by launching it on Falcon.

The ISS hasn't been used yet, it's just been under construction. I'll be surprised if it lasts more than 5 years beyond the treaties that created it.

As far as SpaceX launching a competitor's product, they would do it. Elon has said that they would be happy to launch space elevator hardware, and that they won't be giving themselves discounts on launches for their own missions. In other words, if you want to pay for the launch, they'll do it.

It seems that Europe and EADS might be positioning themselves to create a crew vehicle using the ATV as a starting point. They are looking at a phased approach where an ATV is first developed to return cargo before a manned variant is designed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/15 ... n_rumours/

Of course this has been speculated about before, both on this forum and elsewhere and even ESA has done some work on the subject.

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/gsp/c ... 303ExS.pdf

What is also interesting is that there also appears to be some rumours that the is a possibility of partnering with the Russians.

http://www.kommersant.com/p-12521/r_530/Moon_flights/

I think it unlikely that this article is true because it talks about a craft weighing 20 tons being launched on a Russian booster. Why would Europe spend money developing a craft launched on a yet to be built Russian rocket, especially when Arianne can already carry the load and has been integrated with ATV?

Helllo, Andy,

an article under www.welt.de dating from Wednesday this week is reporting about it also but only talks about Ariane V to launch the manned version of the ATV.

The article is sounding abit as if there might be a decision about it at the next conference of the Ministers' Council.

Both the french and the german space agency are supporting the idea.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

I think it would be the next logical step for Europe to build its own crew craft for a number of reasons.

1. Independant access to space and the ISS.

2. Make better use of the Columbus laboratory and get a better return on their investment.

3. Push the technology further.

4. They are probably looking for a big new project to keep all those aerospace engineers employed.

5. They might be unhappy about relying on Soyuz after the last couple of poor landings and without a shuttle rides to the ISS are going to be limited anyway.

6. Provide another income stream for Arianne or its successor.

7. What do they do next if they dont build a crew vehicle? They are already committed to robotic missions to the moon and Mars, that doesn't leave much other than another orbital telescope which I think NASA is doing. They may have little choice because there is nothing else suitable to spend the money on.

There was an interview with Jesco von Puttkamer under www.welt.d yesterday. He finds Astriums plans of a capsule enabling Europe to lainch their astronauts themselves beginning in 2017 very positive and says that NASA welcomes the plans too since the Shutlles are going to be retired in 2010.

Von Puttkamer is doubting if it wil be an european capsule - and thinks that France can do it alone together with the industry(!). He assumes that the capsule will be constructed und built nonetheless but would welcome participation of Germany - he explicitly wants chancellor Angela Merkel to clarify and declare something like that.



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)