Europe finally sticks it with Jules Verne

It's been over five months since I last tipped my hat to the boys in Europe, but today I'll have to do it again as the European Space Agency finally docked their Jules Verne ATV to the ISS this morning in the world's first autonomous space docking. The coolest part about the ATV is it's use of "frickin' laser beams" for it's computerized docking. Jules brought 7,500 lbs of cargo and supplies to the station today along with a heaping of EuroHope and aspirations for the ESA's sometimes struggling space program. The Automated Transfer Vehicle program will give Europe an in for the ISS and space exploration, at least until we scrap that floating test tube in the sky. It will definitely help with space station supplies as NASA plans on wrapping up shuttle flights here in the next couple of years to prepare for the Constellation Project. The ESA is planning on building 8 more ATVs, each of which will burn up on reentry after servicing the ISS. Wait a minute, shouldn't we try to shoot them down then??

I'm working on uploading a video of the docking on this post, so check back again soon.

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