Venus Express Commissioning Phase Completed

Image credit: ESA

by Staff Writers
Paris, France (SPX) Jun 12, 2006
After 207 days of flight, 43 orbits around Venus and many test activities, Venus Express formally completed its commissioning phase June 3 and entered the routine science phase, ESA announced last week.

The official status of the spacecraft will be formalized when the Mission Commissioning Results Review is completed at the end of June, the agency said in a news release. The nominal mission is scheduled to last till the end of October 2007.

All activities of the third and last week of the Venus Orbit Commissioning Phase have been executed as planned without any major problem, ESA's statement said. The performance of the space and the ground segment has been nominal with minor problems not affecting the mission operations.

Meanwhile, the planning cycle proceeds in its activities and according to the plan. Problems identified in the mission planning are being resolved.

The spacecraft's attitude and orientation system has been reconfigured to use Star Tracker A in the control loop thus concluding the activities linked to the software update, ESA said.

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VENUSIAN HEAT

Venus Express Reaches Final Mission Orbit

Darmstadt, Germany (SPX) May 10, 2006
ESA announced Tuesday the Venus Express spacecraft reached its operational orbit on Sunday, after completing 16 transitory loops around the veiled planet. ESA's ground station in New Norcia, Australia, received a transmission from the spacecraft at 9:49 p.m., indicating it would achieve the preplanned mission successfully about 18 hours later.

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