The shuttle and ISS crews are working together
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Europe's largest and most complicated spacecraft has been launched into space from France on a mission to re-supply the International Space Station.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has taken 11 years to create, costs about £750,000,000 and weighs a whopping 20 tonnes.
It is carrying vital supplies of equipment and food for the space station, but it will take three weeks to get there. |
| When the supplies are gone the empty ATV will be used as a huge rubbish bin.
Up to 6.5 tonnes of waste from the space station will be pumped into the vehicle before heading back to Earth, breaking up into tiny pieces over the Pacific Ocean.
The ATV's mission is Europe's way of paying for its membership to the space station project.
It is the first European spacecraft to be sent into space with supplies but it won't be the last.
Four more ATVs have been ordered, every 18 months one will be blasted into space.
Reported by David
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