Star Wars Galaxy Gets Slowly Closer

The reality of the galactic civilization depicted in the Star Wars films quietly, slowly, dramatically got closer to becoming our reality on April 3rd, 2008.

An unmanned, computer-guided European automated transfer vehicle (ATV) named the "Jules Verne" weighing 20 tons and carrying over 10,000 pounds of supplies, including 1100 pounds of food and 176 pounds of fresh clothing, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) "Zvezda" service module at 1445 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or 10:45 AM Eastern Standard Time on Thursday.

Ground control in France, Russia, and the United States oversaw the unmanned spaceflight as it journeyed to its celestial destination. However, they had no direct involvement in guiding or docking the Jules Verne, and were watching over it only in case there was an emergency.

There are presently three astronauts living on the ISS: Commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Garrett Reisman.

Speaking before the successful ISS docking of the ATV's practice docking maneuvers that engineers and mission controllers put the Jules Verne through before it was loaded up and launched from an Ariane-5 rocket, programme manager at lead manufacturer EADS Astrium Nicolas Chamussy said, "To give you an idea of how well this vehicle has performed -- we've been using about 4kg of fuel per day for attitude control whereas we were expecting to use 15-20kg."

One of the mission objectives of the Jules Verne is, by periodically firing its thrusters, to raise the ISS from its present above-earth altitude of 340 km. The ISS, over time, slowly gets dragged down closer to the Earth by the force of the Earth's gravity.

"The ATV is so much more than a simple delivery truck. It is an intelligent and versatile spaceship which has just demonstrated its extraordinary skills," said Daniel Sacotte, the European Space Agency's director for human spaceflight, microgravity, and exploration just after the successful docking at the ISS.

The Jules Verne was also docked without any manual override commands from the ISS astronauts. The entire docking process took approximately four hours to complete.

"This accomplishment showcases yet again the process which has been made [possible] by the international partnership in bringing this incredible program to fruition," said NASA administrator Mike Griffin.

Perhaps Griffin's statement reflects the best part of the space mission.

Even mechanical wizard Darth Vader made it clear (and demonstrated with a little "Force choke") to a haughty Death Star assistant commander that the celestial Force that binds all things together is more powerful than the most super-advanced artificial technology.

And likely this is what the ancient author of the Chandogya Upanishad had in mind when he wrote, "As great as the infinite space beyond is the space within the lotus of the heart. Both heaven and earth are contained in that inner space; fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars. Whether we know it in this world or know it not, everything is contained in that inner space."