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After several years of development the first European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) developed by ESA called Jules Verne completed successfully its seven-month ISS logistics mission. Launched the 9 March 2008 on an Ariane 5 launcher, the ATV performed the 3 April 2008 its rendezvous and docking to the International Space Station to which it remained attached for five months. This paper presents in a first part the ATV thermal control architecture based on a innovative active thermal control design built around 40 Variable Conductance Heat Pipes (VCHP) controlling the heat rejection and in a second part the in-flight thermal control behavior of the ATV Jules Verne observed during the seven months mission in both free flight and attached to ISS phases.

Jules Verne (JV) is the name of the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) developed by ASTRIUM Space Transportation on behalf of European Space Agency (ESA). JV was launched the 9 March 2008 by ARIANE 5 and performed the 3 April 2008 its automatic rendezvous and docking to the International Space Station (ISS) to which it remained attached up to the 5 September 2008. In the meantime, JV has provided the ISS with dry and fluid cargo and performed one refueling, four ISS re-boosts and one Debris Avoidance Maneuver. JV completed its successful mission by offloading waste and was destroyed during its re-entry the 29 September 2008. Generally, development and verification of Power management rely on classical thermal and electrical engineering.

Jules Verne – the first ATV model developed by ASTRIUM on behalf of ESA – has been controlled by CNES Toulouse Control Centre from March to September 2008. The Engineering Support Team (EST) was in charge to provide System expertise and to propose relevant recommendations in case of off nominal situations. This paper deals with the operations carried out by the EST Thermal position during the JV flight, such as: Identification of thermal anomalies triggered by onboard software or by ground monitoring; Analysis of actual situation from available flight data; Correction implemented thanks to a complete set of commands and procedures; Check on the on-board configuration after correction uploading.