• → European Space Agency

      • Space for Europe
      • Space News
      • Space in Images
      • Space in Videos
    • About Us

      • Welcome to ESA
      • DG's news and views
      • For Member State Delegations
      • Business with ESA
      • Law at ESA
      • ESA Exhibitions
      • ESA Publications
      • Careers at ESA
      • ESAshop
    • Our Activities

      • Space News
      • Observing the Earth
      • Human Spaceflight
      • Space Transportation
      • Navigation
      • Space Science
      • Space Engineering & Technology
      • Operations
      • Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
      • Preparing for the Future
    • Careers at ESA

    • For Media

      • Media
      • ESA TV
      • Videos for professionals
      • Photos
    • For Educators

    • For Kids

    • ESA

    • United Kingdom

    • All about ESA
    • ESA facts and figures
    • ESA's Director General
    • Frequently asked questions
    • Business with ESA
    • ESA in the UK
    • ECSAT in Harwell
    • ESERO UK
    • Multimedia
    • Multimedia gallery
    • Online videos
    • Earth images gallery
    • Press
    • Press releases
    • Resources
    • UK Space Directory
    • Follow us
    • ESA on Twitter
    • ESA on Flickr
    •  ESA on YouTube
    • ESA on Livestream
    • Services
    • RSS feeds

    ESA > ESA in your country > United Kingdom

    Venus Express ready for lift-off

    Artist's impression of Venus Express
    18 October 2005

    ESA PR 45-2005. ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft is to be launched on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday 26 October at 06:43 CEST (04:43 GMT, 10:43 local time).

    Venus Express is Europe’s first mission to Venus, a place of many mysteries that scientists are still eager to solve. Principal among those mysteries is why a planet so similar to Earth in size, mass, and composition has evolved so differently over the course of the last 4600 million years.

    ESA’s ESOC establishment, the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will control the mission and organise a launch event from 06:00 to 12:00.

    A live televised transmission of the launch will bring images from Baikonur to broadcasters and the general public. ESA senior management and specialists will be on hand at ESOC and at other ESA establishments for explanations and interviews.

    All live transmissions are carried free-to-air. For broadcasters, complete details of the various satellite feeds (on Eutelsat W2) are listed at http://television.esa.int.

    For the general public, a launch transmission via Astra 1G has again been organised, with all schedule and transmission details online at http://television.esa.int/photos/Astra.pdf

    On the occasion of the launch of Venus Express, the Planetary Society has teamed up with ESA to invite youths and adults worldwide to enter a Venus Express Art Contest. The theme of the contest is 'Postcards from Venus'. Entrants are invited to imagine the surface of Venus from an above-ground perspective. The winner will be invited to follow the Venus Orbit Insertion event at ESA's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, on 6 April 2006. More on the constest at http://planetary.org/postcards_from_venus/

    Media representatives wishing to follow the event at ESA/ESOC, or the retransmission at other ESA establishments, are requested to fill in the attached registration form and fax it back to the place of their choice.

    For further information, please contact:

    ESA Media Relations Division
    Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
    Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690

    Rate this

    Views

    Share

    • Currently 0 out of 5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Thank you for rating!

    You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

    Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

    328
    Tweet
    • Looking at Venus
    • More about...
      • Venus Express factsheet
      • Venus Express in-depth
      • Status reports
      • Related articles
        • Venus Express ready for lift-off
          • Postcards from Venus: enter the Planetary Society Art Contest
            • Venus Express mated with upper-stage
              • Venus Express Flight Control Team preps for launch
                • Venus Express ready for 'mating' with upper-stage
                  • Venus Express propellant loading completed
                    • Venus Express gets wings
                      • Venus Express electrical tests complete
                        • No shortage of mysteries on Venus
                        • Related links
                        • Registration form
    • App Store
    • Subscribe
    • mobile version
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • · Walking on the Moon – underwater
    • · Storm hunter in position
    • · Mars impact crater or supervolcano?
    • · Top tomatoes thanks to Mars missio…
    • · Mars Express v2.0
    • FAQ

    • Site Map

    • Contacts

    • Terms and conditions