BBC News have published a comprehensive Jules Verne ATV special: Mission Guide: Jules Verne. There are also a couple of very informative interviews.

One with John Ellwood, ESA's ATV Project Manager, who talks us through the Jules Verne ATV mission: Space freighter's complex mission.

And a second with Nicolas Chamussy, ATV programme manager for prime contractor EADS Astrium, who describes the ATV's main features: ATV: A truck engineered for space

Very much worth a read and watch.
--Maria

The ESA team at Santa Maria station, on the island of Santa Maria in the Atlantic, will be among the first to acquire signals from Ariane as it rises in the West on Sunday morning; Santa Maria is the newest station in ESA's global ESTRACK network, and is ideally located to acquire signals from launchers climbing toward the North-East from Kourou. Santa Maria is one of the first ESTRACK stations with launcher-tracking capability and is used to receive real-time telemetry from Kourou launches. Click on 'Full story' for a report and photos from the station, sent in just a few hours ago. -- Daniel

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I spoke yesterday with ESA's Kris Capelle, the Flight Director for Operations working as part of the joint ESA-CNES (CNES = French space agency) team at ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France. He is a long-time 'Ops' guy and has been working at ATV-CC since last year, helping train and practise for the upcoming mission. He says the team will be watching closely for a number of critical events immediately following the Sunday, 9 March, 5:03 CET launch, during the period known as LEOP - the critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase.
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A very short update just in from Kourou. Today's Launch Readiness Review probably won't finish until 17:00 local time - at the earliest - that's 21:00 CET (20:00 UT). All things being well, at this point the 'go' will be given for tomorrow's transfer of the launcher out to the launch pad. We'll let you know when we hear more from Guiana Space Centre!

-- Maria

Whilst we wait to hear the outcome of today's Ariane 5 Launch Readiness Review, here's a few Jules Verne ATV factlets to ponder and amaze your friends and family with.

For Europe in particular, Jules Verne ATV represents a few firsts...