Astrium Bremen

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Astrium Bremen is a manufacturer of manned spaceflight, launch vehicles and space robotics. With around 1,000 employees, he is responsible for the development, construction and operation of major contributions made by European space travel to the International Space Station ISS , such as the Columbus space laboratory (ISS) and the Automated Transfer Vehicle .

In addition, the upper stage of the Ariane 5 launcher is being developed and built at Astrium Bremen . Ariane 5 gives European space travel its own access to space and is the world market leader for commercial satellite transport. Other areas of work and research include the topics of rendezvous & docking, automatic spacecraft landing, tank technology, weightlessness research and mission planning.

history

The companies Focke-Wulf , Hamburger Flugzeugbau and Weser Flugzeugbau founded the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Entwicklungsring Nord ( ERNO ) in 1961 . Capacities should be pooled with a view to a European launch vehicle program. In 1963, Astris , the third stage of the Europa rocket , was the first project to be completed.

In 1967 the name was changed to ERNO Raumfahrttechnik GmbH and the company entered the satellite business. The first German research satellite , Azur , was launched in 1969 and was developed and integrated in Bremen. A year later, Intelsat III started with a Bremen drive system. In 1974 the Helios solar probe began its mission with a thermal concept from ERNO.

In 1973 ERNO became the main contractor for the Spacelab space laboratory . With the decision to develop the Ariane rocket , ERNO received the order to develop the second stage. The first launch of Ariane 1 took place in December 1979.

ERNO was incorporated into the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) group in 1981 and received the production order for the Ariane 4 liquid booster . The first Spacelab mission started in November 1983 with the Columbia shuttle , and two years later the D-1 mission was the first manned mission under German project management. The payload for D-1 and for the later D-2 mission was integrated in Bremen and prepared for flight.

In 1987 the European Space Agency ESA launched the Ariane 5. Under the new name Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) , the Bremen location received the order in 1990 to develop the Ariane 5 upper stage. Another Bremen project, the EURECA experimental platform , was launched in space in 1992.

Based on its experience in manned space travel, DASA also received the development contract for the Columbus Laboratory of the International Space Station (ISS) in October 1995 .

In October 1997 the first Ariane 5 started with the new Bremen upper stage. It was the 101st start of Ariane. In the course of the consolidation of the European aerospace industry, the European group EADS was founded in 2000 . EADS merged large parts of its space activities with British Aerospace and Matra Marconi Space , including the Bremen site, which was given the new company name Astrium .

The PHOENIX project started in 2001 in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) . The autonomous final approach of future reusable space gliders (concept hopper ) was to be examined with a demonstrator . The first successful glide flight took place in 2004 in Vidsel (Northern Sweden). EADS merged the Bremen activities under the new name EADS Space Transportation with its French space transportation division.

In the same year, ESA commissioned the Bremen location with the production of the ATV ( Automated Transfer Vehicle ) space transporter , which had been developed by EADS and its predecessors in previous years. At the end of 2004, the ROKVISS robotic arm, developed in cooperation with DLR, was launched for the ISS. In 2006, EADS merged all of the Group's space activities into the integrated EADS Astrium organization.

In 2008, the site delivered the 100th satellite tank. In the spring of the same year, the Columbus laboratory docked with the ISS and began operations. A few weeks later the first mission of the ATV "Jules Vernes" to the ISS followed.

In 2009 the Bremen location received study contracts for a possible further development of the ATV into a returnable transport system as well as for testing future lunar landing technologies. Astrium also received its first orders to further develop Ariane 5 into the ME (Midlife Evolution) version.

To strengthen its brand identity, EADS changed its appearance; since 2010 the space division has been called “Astrium”, the Bremen location remained a pure location of the “Astrium Space Transportation” unit.

Projects

The Ariane upper classes

Astrium's Bremen site has played an important role in the development and construction of its own launch vehicle since the first time Europe started considering its own access to space. Since the beginning of the Ariane program in the 1970s, Astrium has been manufacturing rocket stages for the Ariane 1–4 in Bremen. Astrium in Bremen is building the entire upper stage for the current version of the European launcher, the Ariane 5. Since the beginning of 2006, the “brain” of the Ariane 5, the VEB (Vehicle Equipment Bay) control unit, has also been manufactured in the Bremen plant.

Ariane 5 is currently the world's most powerful commercial launch vehicle. The current version, the Ariane 5 ECA, can simultaneously launch several satellites into geostationary orbit with a total payload of up to ten tons . The special version Ariane 5 ES will also launch the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), the supply transporter for the International Space Station ISS.

The Columbus laboratory

A milestone in Astrium's company history was the completion of the Columbus research module for the International Space Station. Columbus was brought to the ISS in February 2008 with the space shuttle "Atlantis". In the Columbus module, experiments from the fields of materials science, medicine, biology and human sciences are carried out under weightlessness. At the same time, Bremen is also responsible for the operation and use of the European elements of the International Space Station. From here, the technical availability of Columbus is ensured, the supplies for the astronauts are planned and the experimental facilities are provided for the scientists.

The ATV

In Bremen, a large part of the automatic supply vehicle ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) was built to supply the ISS. It brought up to 6.5 tons of supplies and fuel to the International Space Station. At the same time, the ATV with its on-board engines ensured that the ISS was raised at regular intervals. At the end of the mission, the ATV was loaded with waste from the station and burned up in a controlled manner when it re-entered the earth's atmosphere. After the successful maiden flight of "Jules Verne" in 2008, the second ATV called "Johannes Kepler" started in February 2011. A total of five ATV supply flights had been completed by 2015. The program was not continued thereafter.

Future projects

Robotically to the moon

Astrium has been studying the possibilities for European lunar missions in Europe for years. Astrium is currently entrusted with a study by ESA, which should prove the concrete feasibility of a soft and precise robotic landing on the moon.

Next generation ATV

In order to be able to return material from the space station to Earth even after the US Space Shuttle is no longer available, Astrium is investigating a re-entry system based on ATV as part of an ESA study. In a further step, the independent European transport of astronauts into space and back again would be conceivable.

Ariane 5 ME

In order to continue to adapt the Ariane 5 with its double launch concept to the market, a new version with a higher payload capacity and a more versatile mission profile is to be developed for it. This so-called Ariane 5 ME (Midlife Evolution) should be able to transport twelve instead of the previous ten tonnes of payload into geotransfer orbit. This is done with a new, re-ignitable upper stage on a cryogenic basis, which is being developed at the Bremen site. Ariane 5 ME should be ready for use from 2015 at the earliest and then replace the two previous versions of Ariane 5.

guides

At Astrium in Bremen, school classes, student groups and those interested in space travel have the opportunity to look at the Ariane 5 upper levels and the ATV automatic transport vehicle in different phases of integration. The visitor center shows how astronauts live, work and sleep in space. A look through the windows of the ISS Engineering Center reveals live recordings of the ISS and shows the astronauts' current daily program. It is also possible to inspect a true-to-original model of the Columbus space laboratory. In 2010, over 7,000 visitors came to the Astrium site in Bremen.

Web links