After undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, the European ‘Space Truck’ burned up on reentry today, marking the end of the program.

The initiative, officially called Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), was created by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a contribution to the ISS. It was originally conceived in 1987 and gained final approval in 1995.

Since 2008, 5 ATVs have been launched and have delivered nearly 70 thousand pounds of supplies and equipment to the ISS. The vehicle was the most complex ever developed in Europe. They have also served to boost the station on several occasions and move it away from debris.

The 32 foot long spacecraft, weighing about 20 tons, was equipped with four primary thrusters along with 28 smaller maneuvering thrusters. It contained water and oxygen tanks along with a cargo hold and solar panels to provide extra power.

According to a statement by the ESA, “the vehicles demonstrated European mastering of automated docking, a technology that is vital for further space exploration.”

The fifth and final ATV “Georges Lemaître” set the record for the heaviest Airane 5 launch when it took off on July 29, 2014.

As with most supply ships, the craft was loaded with waste material before undocking yesterday. It then maneuvered into a safe descent trajectory and burned up over an uninhabited part of the Pacific Ocean.

ATV was conceived when discussions began about replacing the deteriorating Russian Mir space station. As part of Europe’s contribution ATV was part of a supply fleet that included America’s Dragon and Cygnus ferries, Japan’s HII Transfer Vehicle and Russia’s Progress.

“It is with a feeling of pride that we look back at our accomplishments on the ATV programme. We look forward to applying the experience and knowledge we gained from designing, building and operating five ATV spacecraft with excellent results to future exploration missions using the successor European Service Module of the Orion vehicle.” said Thomas Reiter, Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.

The ESA will now shift its attention to their participation in NASA’s Orion spacecraft program. The European Service Module, ATV’s successor will supply power, air and propulsion for Orion’s first test flight scheduled for 2017.

The Orion spacecraft is designed to go much deeper into space than the International Space Station and is likely to be the vehicle that carries the first astronauts to Mars.

The vehicle, which made its first successful test flight in 2014 will be the first U.S. made vehicle to take humans into space since the end of the Space Shuttle Program.

In addition to its advanced supply ships, the ESA is also focused on the ongoing Rosetta mission which is still busily gathering data on Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko and waiting for the Philae lander to get close enough to the sun to wake up.