An Ariane 5ES rocket has launched the first Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV. The spacecraft, named Jules Verne has been described as the most advanced ever built in Europe. It will now begin about a month of testing, prior to its scheduled docking with the International Space Station (ISS) in early April. The launch of the ATV marks the culmination of a thirteen-year development programme, and the start of a six-month mission to test the spacecraft and resupply the ISS. Arianespace conducted the launch on behalf of the European Space Agency, who will be responsible for the ATV's operation. A second burn of the upper stage was performed at around 05:06 GMT. Launch operations concluded with spacecraft separation from the carrier rocket at 05:09, and control of the ATV was transferred to the French space agency, CNES, who will control it from a centre in Toulouse. Deployment of the spacecraft's solar arrays was confirmed at around 05:40 GMT.

The Ariane 5ES rocket, which was making its maiden flight, lifted off from ELA-3 at the Guiana Space Centre at 04:03:04 GMT this morning. The Ariane 5ES was designed primarily to be used for European government programmes, such as the ATV, and Galileo. It uses the first stage of a heavy-lift Ariane 5ECA, with a restartable upper stage from the Ariane 5GS. It will replace the Ariane 5GS, which is scheduled to retire later this year. It is the first European launch of the year, with the next, using an Ariane 5ECA, scheduled for early April, with Brazillian satellite Star One C2 and Vinasat-1, the first Vietnamese spacecraft. The next ATV is scheduled for launch in late 2009.

The ATV will remain in orbit for around six months, before being replaced at the ISS by a smaller Russian Progress spacecraft. When this happens, the ATV will be de-orbited, and will burn up on re-entry. The launch is the culmination of thirteen years of planning and preparation, and the programme is already three years behind schedule. The launch of Jules Verne had previously been delayed from July, September and November 2007, and from February 2008. A further delay, from Saturday, was caused by a problem with the system that the ATV uses to separate from its carrier rocket.

Speaking after the launch, Arianespace chairman Jean-Yves Le Gall remarked that the launch was "perfect", and that the launch shows that Europe is a "major player" in manned spaceflight. ESA administrator Jean-Jacques Dordain commented that ESA was "embarking on an extraordinary voyage", and that "as of today ESA is an essential partner...of the International Space Station". He also said that Europe was "on [its] way to becoming a major partner in the ISS", and that the successful launch "would not have been possible the support of ESA's member states".

The ATV's launch comes two days ahead of the scheduled launch of the next mission to visit the Space Station, Space Shuttle Endeavour, which will begin mission STS-123 at 06:28:12 GMT on Tuesday. Endeavour will deliver the first pressurised section of the Japanese Experiment Module, and the Canadian-built Dextre component for the Space Station's robotic arm.

This is the eighth orbital launch of 2008. The 20-tonne ATV is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by a European rocket.

Wine and good health are related to each other closely. Drinking wine promotes good health and this is no fable. Many eminent scientists and researchers have proved this fact. You would be amazed to hear that drinking wine can actually eradicate several problems related to health and that too in a short period of time.

There are several good effects of wine on health. This is the reason that most countries across the globe consider wine as an important part of a special lunch or dinner. Wine is also used to cook food. Drinking wine is not just restricted to certain occasions. This custom is a daily practice in most of the countries. In France, where wine is considered to be a mandatory drink, rate of people dying from health problems is very less against those countries where wine is not consumed by a large number of population.

Let us discuss the good effects of drinking wine on human body in detail.

a) Good spirits:
Drinking wine keeps you in good spirits. You would feel enthusiasm and great energy within you. Wine consists of sugar. It is also rich in vital vitamins and essential minerals. All these properties together keep your body in good condition. Studies have proved that drinking wine provides extra calories to our body and this increase the amount of energy in our bodies.

b) Heart attack:
Studies have proved that drinking red wine minimizes the risk of heart attack. The reason is that wine helps in reducing bad cholesterol from the body and increases good cholesterol to maintain the health of your heart. Drinking wine will work wonders to your hearth health. It is a great cardiovascular medicine.

c) Digestion:
One of the most amazing benefits of drinking wine is that it facilitates digestion of food. So, drinking wine will really help people who have poor digestion. Wine facilitates the production of gastric juices and this in turn, promotes better food digestion.

d) Cancer:
Red wine is a great source of antioxidants. Antioxidants further help in keeping the body healthy as they play an important role in eliminating free radicals from your body. These radicals are responsible for damage of vital cells inside the body. This, in turn results in serious diseases such as cancer and heart attack. Drink wine and bid good bye to cancer.

e) Body warmth:
Scientists have proved that red wine contains an element that’s responsible for fighting the herpes off from the body. Drinking wine thwarts the development of colds inside our body. This helps people to keep their body warm in cold countries.

f) Cholesterol levels:
Drinking wine is vital for health because it aids in cholesterol level control inside the body. Red wine contains antioxidants known as flavonoids. These antioxidants control cholesterol levels inside the body and keep the heart in a healthy state.
Consume wine in moderate quantity (just one to two glasses per day) and you can enjoy the health benefits mentioned above. Drink to your health.
 
About the Author:

Jack Wells is a regular contributor for wine reviews and editor for WineHappy Social Networking site at http://www.winehappy.com You can go there and add him as your drinking buddy!

The French web survey provider XiTiMonitor reports that in their study conducted from Monday, July 2 to Sunday, July 8, 2007 on 95,827 websites, web browser Mozilla Firefox reached a 27.8% share in Europe, compared to 21.1% during the same period last year.

Firefox has its biggest market share in Slovenia and Finland where it amounts to 47.9% and 45.4%, respectively, while only 14.6% of people from the Netherlands and 15.2% of surfers in Denmark used Firefox in this survey. The share rose most in Ireland: from 24.9% to 38.6% (i.e. +13.7 points).

Microsoft's web browser Internet Explorer remains the most used browser in Europe with a market share of 66.5%. Opera and Safari have a 3.5% and 1.7% share respectively, with other browsers at less than 1%.
Oceania remains the region with the highest usage of the freely licensed and open source software browser Firefox, with 28.9%. The continent with the strongest relative increase in market share is South America, where there is a 30% increase compared to last March. Numbers from the U.S. based company Net Applications Inc. last month showed a fall in Firefox's share from 15.42% in April to 14.54%.

NASA says that the Spitzer Space Telescope has detected water vapor on HD 189733b, a massive exoplanet orbiting the dwarf star HD 189733, "trillions of miles" outside our solar system. The water vapors were found in the planet's atmosphere.

"We're thrilled to have identified clear signs of water on a planet that is trillions of miles away," said Giovanna Tinetti, a European Space Agency researcher and main author of NASA's study, at the Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris France.

The planet, termed a "wet jupiter", takes approximately two days to orbit its sun and its surface temperatures are estimated to be at least 1,000 Kelvin (1,340 Fahrenheit/727 Centigrade) which, according to scientists, makes it unlikely that life would exist there. The presence of water was observed by using the telescope to examine the absorption spectra as the planet transited across its star.

"Finding water on this planet implies that other planets in the universe, possibly even rocky ones, could also have water," said co-author Sean Carey of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Similar evidence for another hot gas giant, previously gathered using the Hubble telescope, was not widely accepted due to experimental noise and similar concerns.

HD 189733b is located 63 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula.