European ATV-3 unmanned cargo carrier shipped to Kourou

ATV-3, Europe's next unmanned cargo carrier to the International Space Station has arrived to the Kourou space center in French Guiana for next year's launch, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on its website. The third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi, is to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) early next year. It was delivered from Germany in several hermetically sealed containers by French cargo ship MN Toucan, earlier used to transport Ariane rocket elements. During the next ATV mission, the biggest cargo carrier servicing the ISS is scheduled to deliver two metric tons of dry cargo, 285 kg of water and more than three metric tons of propellants to the station's crew. The first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched in 2008, delivering about 4.5 metric tons of food, fuel and equipment to the ISS. ATV-2, named after Johannes Kepler, was launched in February and remained docked with the ISS until late June. ESA plans four ATV launches to the ISS in the coming years, one each year.