I also managed to get hold of Alan Thirkettle, ESA’s ISS Programme Manager, shortly after confirmation of solar array deployment. Here’s what he had to say about today’s events. 
--Maria

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After the launch, ESA's Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, spoke at Kourou on the successful start of Jules Verne, the first ATV mission. Many thanks to our colleagues at DLR for assisting with the mp3 recording. -- Daniel

Listen to mp3 here:

I managed to get a reaction from John Ellwood, ESA's ATV Project Manager, to today's successful launch of Jules Verne ATV. (Click 'Full story' to read...)
--Maria

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A quick, final report from ESA's Santa Maria station: everything went great! Gerhard Billig, from ESOC here in Darmstadt, was at the station this AM and he told me that telemetry was successfully downloaded during both passes. You can hear his telephone report below. -- Daniel 

Listen to mp3 here:

ESA's Bob Chesson at ATV-CC just sent in a note: ATV's Proximity Link Antenna (vital for communicating with the ISS) is deployed and the star trackers are OK. More details on ATV navigation aids at the link below. -- Daniel

"ATV: Rendezvous in space" 

Watch a reply of the launch video via the link below (Flash animation should open in a separate window). -- Daniel

launch-ariane-atv-2008-03-09_L.swf

GPS signal receipt was nominal... (Just in from ATV-CC) -- Daniel

Formal confirmation on launch and a hugely successful orbit injection will go out in a few minutes... Please check the main ESA portal for details. -- Daniel

Update

"Jules Verne, the first of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), a new series of autonomous spaceships designed to re-supply and re-boost the International Space Station (ISS), was successfully launched into low Earth orbit by an Ariane 5 vehicle this morning."

"Lift-off occurred at 05:03 CET (01:03 local) from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This flight required a new version of Europe’s workhorse launcher, the Ariane 5ES, specially adapted to the task of lofting the nearly 20-tonne vehicle – more than twice as heavy as the previous largest Ariane 5 payload – to a low circular orbit inclined at 51.6 degrees relative to the Equator and equipped with an upper stage with re-ignition capabilities." 

Full text here 

A rather cool clip from Arianespace TV (from a **previous** launch - but today's would have looked much the same) showing the fairing being jettisoned; image taken from the camera mounted on board Ariane itself (click on 'Full story' to access video...). -- Daniel

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Just in from ATV-CC... Arianespace TV have announced that power, arrays, etc. are all OK. My guess is that the folks at ATV-CC have just heaved a **huge** collective sigh of relief... -- Daniel