Venus Express 'talks' to Earth


Venus Express
 
Artist's view of Venus Express communicating with Earth
 
 
11 April 2006
 
At 11:12 CEST Venus Express re-established communication with Earth for the first time after the start of the orbit insertion manoeuvres.
 
After the end of the main engine burn, Venus Express still had to perform a few automatic operations. These included re-orienting the solar panels towards the Sun and one of its high gain antennas (the smaller High Gain Antenna 2) towards Earth.

It is through this antenna that the spacecraft established the first communication link with Earth and started to send back information about its health status. The spacecraft data are sent to ESA’s European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) via ESA’s Cebreros ground station near Madrid. The data downlink lasts for a few hours.

Information about Venus Express’ actual trajectory will be available from ESOC’s flight dynamics team around 12:30 CEST.
 
 

Feature

 •   ESA astronaut C. Nicollier on voyaging to Venus (mms://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/audio/cn_venus.mp3)
 •  VOI highlights and press conference (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMIRONFGLE_0.html)
 •  ESApod: Venus Express (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMHXANFGLE_0.html)

VOI updates

 •  Venus Express’ initial orbit matches expectations (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMY1SNFGLE_0.html)
 •  Venus Express main engine burn ended (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMMYPNFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Express reappears from behind Venus (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQPPNFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Pre-planned thrill - Venus Express disappears behind Venus (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMXKPNFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Express main engine burn starts (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM7CPNFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Express slews and prepares to ‘brake’ (http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM77PNFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Orbit Insertion timeline (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMMM0NFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  Looking at Venus (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html)
 •  ESA’s Venus Express to reach final destination (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM0UGNFGLE_index_0.html)

Related articles

 •  Venus within ESA probe reach (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEME02NFGLE_index_0.html)
 •  And now… straight to Venus! (http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMIMWMVGJE_index_0.html)
 •  Successful Venus Express main engine test (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMVX5MVGJE_index_0.html)
 •  First light for the Venus Monitoring Camera (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMLWVULWFE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Express performs flawlessly, LEOP complete (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMK9UJBWFE_index_0.html)
 •  Venus Express mission operations update (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEM780738FE_0.html)
 •  Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM56Q638FE_index_0.html)

Related links

 •  Venus Express operations (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEM7QMQJNVE_0.html)
 •  Webcam from ESOC (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMN3Y274OD_index_0.html)