The active Sun Spot group AR1429 (top centre in this image) is a very active solar region that recently produced two major solar flares with coronal mass ejections. The first was an X1-class flare on 5 March 2012 04:13UTC, and the second, even more powerful, an X5-class flare, on 7 March 2012 at 00:28 UTC. Several spacecraft were affected by the resulting strong radiation, wave of solar plasma and energetic particles. For example, the star tracker cameras on board Venus Express were temporarily 'blinded' for several days due to the harsh plasma environment in the aftermath of the CME cloud shock wave.