ATV cargo ships

With the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2010, it looked like there might be limited opportunities for hitching a ride into space in the years to come.

Luckily the European Space Agency has now confirmed that from next year it will start using ATV cargo ships capable of lifting  7000 kgs of kit into space.

Interesting to note that such a big payload will still have to be broken down into much smaller bundles, since the size of the Space Station doors is pretty tiny. Note to self - make sure that my rocket doors are wide enough to get a golf cart through.