A report received from Kourou earlier this evening...

John Ellwood, ESA's ATV Project Manager, has confirmed the 10-hour launch countdown started exactly on time at 15:00 Kourou time (19:00 CET) as scheduled. Everything is running smoothly. Dozens of specialists are already in front of their consoles in the three main control rooms at the Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.


The main control room is in the Jupiter building and handles all the tracking stations, the range safety and gets input from the other two rooms. The other control rooms, on the same space base, are in charge of the Ariane 5 launcher and a 15-strong team of Astrium and ESA specialists who are taking care of the Jules Verne ATV. They are all in touch with the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) in Toulouse, France, where they will monitor and lead the automatic mission of Jules Verne. 

The latest weather forecast remains favourable for launch. The heavy rains expected in Kourou have been limited to Cayenne. Instead the sun has been shining in Kourou. The launch for this inaugural ATV flight is scheduled for Sunday morning at 05:03 CET (04:03 UTC/01:03 Kourou time)