Venus Express (nonfiction)

Digital illustration of Venus Express in orbit.

Venus Express (VEX) was the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency (ESA).

It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 9 November 2005 by a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket into a parking Earth orbit. One hour and thirty-six minutes after launch, it was put into its transfer orbit to Venus.

A first trajectory correction maneuver was successfully performed on 11 November 2005.

Venus Express arrived at Venus on 11 April 2006, after 153 days of journey, and began continuously sending back science data from its polar orbit around Venus.

Equipped with seven scientific instruments, the main objective of the mission was the long term observation of the Venusian atmosphere. The observation over such long periods of time had never been done in previous missions to Venus, and was key to a better understanding of the atmospheric dynamics.

ESA concluded the mission in December 2014.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against mathematical constants
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Spacecraft (nonfiction)

External links:

• Venus Express @ Wikipedia
• Venus Express ready for shipping to Baikonur