Europe's space cargo carrier, ATV, after many years of work is finally in orbit. It has a problem with some of the engines, but that shouldn't stop it from reaching International Space Station.
One thing I don't like about Russian Space Agency press releases is that everything has "unique characteristics" and is "superior than western alternatives". Well, it seems European Space Agency suffers from the same problem as well. From ESA's
article about successful ATV launch:
"The ATV is also the very first spacecraft in the world designed to conduct automated docking in full compliance with the very tight safety constraints imposed by human spaceflight operations. It features high accuracy navigation systems and a flight software far more complex than that used on Ariane 5."
Well, Russia has been flying
Progress spacecraft in fully automatic mode since 1970s. And ESA perfectly knows that. They even have a video of
Progress docking on their website. :)