ATV may be delayed again

full article at
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...-esas-atv.html

The European Space Agency's first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will begin
its programme's four-month long qualification process in April, which will help
to answer NASA's questions about International Space Station (ISS) safety and
the potential for commercial ATV cargo supply.


NASA has some tough questions and it is felt the July 25 launch date will have
to be delayed.

Has Kurs gone through similar USA study/approval before ?

Reading the article, I get the impression that because NASA's DART experiment
failed, they feel the europeans would also fail. Does NASA have a nagative
attitude towards ESA's capabilities ?

Or has the ATV project been plagued by so many problems that NASA is right to
wonder if the project was managed with "total quality assurance" from head to toe ?