"The ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) will be launched from the 22nd February to the 8th, 9th March," John Ellwood, mission manager in charge of the unmanned space freighter, told journalists here.

Loading and fuelling the ATV at ESA's launch pad at Kourou, French Guiana, should be completed by this Saturday. It would then be transferred for final assembly to the Ariane 5 launcher, he said.

The ATV, one of Europe's two biggest contributions to the International Space Station (ISS), has an at-launch mass of 19.5 tonnes, of which 7.5 tonnes comprise food, water, oxygen, equipment and other items of cargo.

The first in the five-craft series, baptised Jules Verne after the 19th-century French author who begat science fiction, will be berthed to the ISS until August.

It will then separate, carrying station waste, and break up over the Pacific.

Europe's other major contribution to the ISS is a science module, Columbus, which is due to be lofted next month by the US space shuttle. Launch has been sketched for February 7.

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