Venus Orbit Insertion timeline

Time (CEST)	Event
08:03	VEX slew manoeuvre starts This rotation, to last about half an hour, will re-orient the spacecraft to have the main engine facing the direction of motion, and so allow the braking manouevre.
09:17	Venus Express main engine burn starts Venus Express main engine is due to fire for 50 minutes.
09:45	Occultation starts (loss of S-band signal) An occultation occurs when Venus Express travels behind the planet so that the line of sight to Earth is blocked; it will lose radio contact (S-band) for almost 10 minutes. During the journey to Venus, communication has been in X-band, via the high-gain antenna HGA2. During VOI, neither of the two high-gain antennas can be used because of the spacecraft orientation. Only the low gain antenna (S-band) can carry a feeble signal to Earth to tell about the spacecraft velocity.
09:55	Occultation ends Controllers will closely watch for reacquisition of radio contact once the occultation ends.
10:07	VEX main engine burn ends
10:10	Announcement by Flight Operations Director
11.07	X-band transmitter on The X-band transmitter connected to the high-gain antenna HGA2 will be switched on, and will start sending information to Earth about the health status of the spacecraft.
11:12	Telemetry received
11:30-12:15	Press Conference

 
 
All times above are 'Earth Received' time - i.e. after the actual events have taken place at the spacecraft. During orbit insertion, the spacecraft will be 125 000 000 kilometres from Earth and the round-trip signal time will be 13 minutes and 32 seconds.
 
 

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 'talks' to Earth (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMZ7QNFGLE_0.html)
•	Venus Express main engine burn ended (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMMYPNFGLE_0.html)
•	Venus Express reappears from behind Venus (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMQPPNFGLE_0.html)
•	Pre-planned thrill - Venus Express disappears behind Venus (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMXKPNFGLE_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)
•	Looking at Venus (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html)
•	ESA’s Venus Express to reach final destination (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEM0UGNFGLE_0.html)
Related articles
•	Venus within ESA probe reach (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEME02NFGLE_0.html)
•	And now… straight to Venus! (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMIMWMVGJE_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/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMLWVULWFE_0.html)
•	Venus Express performs flawlessly, LEOP complete (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMK9UJBWFE_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/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEM56Q638FE_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)