Jena-Optronik developed the Rendezvous- and Docking Sensor RVS for the European Space Agency ESA and the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, in order to support and control the automated docking of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle ATV and the Japanese Transfer Vehicle HTV with the International Space Station ISS.
An RVS prototype has already been successfully demonstrated in orbit during two campaigns of the Space Shuttles STS-84 and STS-86 docking to the MIR space station in 1997.
In 2008 the first ATV named "Jules Verne" has approached the International Space Station with a successful docking manoeuvre.
