A number of amateur photographers/astronomers have dropped us notes to their postings of images of ATV. Marco Langbroek, in Leiden, Netherlands, posted this:

 

 

"Against my expectations, it was clear this morning, allowing me the chance to observe the 04:21 UTC pass of the newly launched ATV-1 Jules Verne (08-008A), the first European cargo ship on its way to the ISS. It was launched last Saturday on Sunday night from Kourou by an Ariane 5 rocket. ATV stands for Automated Transfer Vehicle. I watched it coming out of earth shadow at about 50 degrees altitude in Ophiuchus around 04:21:10 UTC. It was nice and bright, reaching mag. 0.5."

Click on 'Full story' for links and pics... (thanks Marco!) -- Daniel

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Jason Hatton, a keen amateur photographer in Holland, grabbed a couple of **great** pictures of the ISS and ATV overhead this morning! Click on 'Full story' to access hi-res versions and details (thanks, Jason!). -- Daniel

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This also published on the main ESA portal earlier:

Jules Verne ATV successfully performed a series of orbital manoeuvres earlier this afternoon. The two manoeuvres using the main engines, which occurred at 15:54 and 17:06 CET, initiated the orbital phasing (the period in which the spacecraft adjusts its orbit to match that of the ISS). Two additional orbit manoeuvres tomorrow afternoon will complete the phasing boost.

-- Daniel

This just published a few moments ago on the main ESA web portal:

Following an overnight recovery operation, Jules Verne ATV's propulsion system has successfully been restored to full robustness. The spacecraft has since performed the first orbital manoeuvres necessary to set up phasing with the International Space Station.

Mission controllers in Toulouse are now rescheduling activities to take Jules Verne ATV to its parking orbit in front of the ISS, including a demonstration of the spacecraft's Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre capability. Once in the parking orbit, Jules Verne ATV will wait for the completion of the STS-123 Shuttle mission at the Space Station, before proceeding with the rendezvous demonstration manoeuvres and the final rendezvous and docking.

Full details on the ESA portal here. -- Daniel

Benoit Demelenne, head of the Redu Spacecraft Operations Team at ESA's Redu tracking station, sent in this email yesterday. Note that Artemis is ESA's own relay satellite, and in addition to supporting ATV, it is used to receive data from ESA's hugely successful Envisat mission (more info including links after the jump). -- Daniel

 

"Following the successful launch of ATV at 05:03 on Sunday, the Artemis relay satellite acquired telemetry signals from ATV at 06:45:58 as planned. The data were received via the Artemis feeder link antenna at Redu station and were passed on to ATV-CC at Toulouse. So far, 9 passes were supported for a total of more than 6 hours of telemetry and telecommand support. All activity here has been completely nominal."

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To say we've been too busy to blog would be the understatement of the week! Your hard-working blog team apologises for the delay. Now - some really cool stuff to follow! -- Daniel