Venus Express

[SirUlli]

Venus Express arrives in Baikonur

and

Venus Express factsheet

Fast track to Venus

Name The name Venus Express comes from the short time to define, prepare and launch the mission. It will take less than three years from the approval to the launch of the mission. To do this, ESA re-used the same design as the Mars Express mission and the same industrial teams that worked on that mission.

Description Venus Express will study our nearest planetary neighbour. It has been built around the design of Mars Express, making it quicker and cheaper to develop. In particular, Venus Express will study the Venusian atmosphere and clouds in unprecedented detail and accuracy.

Launch Launch window is October-November 2005 (Soyuz-Fregat from Baikonur, Kazakhstan).

Status Preparing for launch.

Journey The launcher will place the spacecraft into a transfer orbit to Venus. It will travel through space for 153 days and once it is captured by Venusian gravity, it will take five days to manoeuvre into its operational orbit.

Notes With Venus Express, Mars Express and BepiColombo, ESA is the only space agency in the world with current plans to visit each planet in the inner Solar System.

The idea for Venus Express came out of a competition for European scientists to reuse existing technology and industrial teams.

Venus Express is ESA's first spacecraft to visit this planet.

Europe is back in Space...

Sir Ulli

 

[amdxborg]

Wow very interesting news! 😀

Thanx Sir Ulli! 😉

 

[networkman]

Hehe.. I know just what music they can play for launch too:

"The Final Countdown" which is, oddly enough, by a band named "Europe". 😛

 

[petrusbroder]

Thanks for the info, SirUlli
and for the music networkman! 🙂

 

[SirUlli]

Venus Express Launch on Hold

21 Oct 2005
During the final preparations for the launch of the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft by a Soyuz-Fregat launcher, contamination was detected inside the launcher's fairing.

The contamination means the spacecraft will have to be dismounted from the Fregat upper stage, cleaned, and then remounted onto the Fregat stage.

The contaminating material either came from the rocket's upper Fregat stage, or from the fairings, which protect the spacecraft during launch.

As a result of these additional checks Starsem and ESA have announced a postponement of the launch, originally scheduled launch for Wednesday 26 October, by several days.

The new launch date will be announced in due course.

Full Story, hope all is going the right way...

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38172

Sir Ulli

 

[Fardringle]

This is cool. I hope it works out!

We've had several probes visit Mars recently so we've seen what it looks like where Men come from. Now if this mission is successful we'll be able to see where Women come from. 😉 (And maybe why they're so turbulent and hard to figure out?) 😀

^^Any women reading this, I'll consider myself slapped already, but I just couldn't resist...

 

[SirUlli]

Europe Prepares to Return to Venus

After a 2-week delay in its schedule, the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft is back on track for launch. According to Manfred Warhaut, Flight Operation Director for Venus Express, the new working launch date is November 9 at 03:33 UTC (November 8 at 19:33, PST), although that has not been officially confirmed by ESA management.

Full Story

http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/1101_Europe_Prepares_to_Return_to_Venus.html

and Fingers crossed

Sir Ulli

 

[SirUlli]

Venus Express team in launch countdown

7 November 2005
At 07:00 CET Monday, the Venus Express mission clock began ticking down to Wednesday's launch. The excitement at ESOC and particularly in the Main Control Room is palpable as launch preparations get under way.

Throughout Monday, the Mission Control Team (MCT) ran through final checks and verifications. This is no simulation: the communications loop is live; the tracking stations are on net, real telemetry is flowing from the spacecraft and, at ESOC, adrenalin is starting to pump.
...

Sir Ulli

 

[SirUlli]

Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries

9 November 2005
ESA PR 50-2005. The European spacecraft Venus Express has been successfully placed into a trajectory that will take it on its journey from Earth towards its destination of the planet Venus, which it will reach next April.

Full Story

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM56Q638FE_index_0.html

and more Info

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/venusexpress/051109launch.html

Sir Ulli