European cargo vessel docks with space station

PARIS Feb 24 (Reuters) - An unmanned European supply vessel carrying more than 7 tonnes of freight docked with the International Space Station on Thursday reinforcing Europe's role in the functioning of the ISS, space officials said.

European Space Agency (ESA) officials said the docking of Europe's second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was flawless when it eased into place without any intervention from astronauts in the space station.

They put the official docking time with the ISS at 1559 GMT and approximately 10 minutes later initial electrical connections to the ISS were confirmed.

Astronauts aboard the ISS will be able to enter the vessel after electric connections and seals keeping space atmosphere out of the station are checked.

"This is a very important programme for the agency," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the ESA said after the docking from a mission control centre in Toulouse, France.

"The ATV is a unique spacecraft. First of all it carries several tonnes of equipment and fuel to lift the orbit of the space station and our partners are going to need that fuel very urgently," Dordain said.

The ATV will also be used as a "space jack". Residual gravity from the earth causes the space station to fall about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) a month. The vessel will ignite thrusters to lift the station back to a higher altitude.

It is the second of five scheduled missions that represent Europe's contribution to the ISS. A first ATV was launched and successfully docked with the ISS in 2008.

The ATV, built by a consortium led by the space unit of aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA), carries three times the cargo of Russia's Progress vehicle and will play a vital role supplying the ISS when the current generation of space shuttles is phased out after three more scheduled missions.

It was developed by the ESA as part of a barter arrangement with the U.S. space agency NASA.

Instead of paying cash for its share of the station's common operating costs and also to secure additional astronaut access, ESA is providing the ATV and other components.

A full ATV mission costs around 350 million Euros ($475 million), the ATV spacecraft itself accounting for around 200 million euros, the ESA said.

Thursday's docking with the ISS, overseen by control stations in France, the United States and Russia, the two vehicles travelled at 28,000 km per hour, underlining the technical challenge of the manoeuvre.

The ATV was launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket on Feb 16 from the ESA's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America.

It will remain docked to the space station for more than three months as astronauts remove its cargo and fill it with rubbish from the station. It will then be thrust back toward earth, burning up on re-entry over the Pacific ocean. (Reporting by Alexander Miles)