ESA - Venus Express - Venus Express 'talks' to Earth

Europe goes to Venus

Tribute to the cryptic planet Penetrating an impenetrable world Past missions to Venus

About Venus Express

Venus Express mission facts Venus Express objectives The spacecraft Orbiter instruments The launcher Operating Venus Express

About Venus

Venusian geography The surface Acid clouds and lightning Greenhouse effect, clouds and winds Venus compared to Earth

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International collaboration Project Manager: An interview with Don McCoy Project Scientist: An interview with Håkan Svedhem Launch Campaign Manager: An interview with Michael Witting Spacecraft Operations Manager: An interview with Andrea Accomazzo Venus Express Flight Control Team Principal Investigators

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Artist's view of Venus Express communicating with Earth

Venus Express 'talks' to 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.

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ESA astronaut C. Nicollier on voyaging to Venus VOI highlights and press conference

ESApod: Venus Express

VOI updates

Venus Express’ initial orbit matches expectations Venus Express main engine burn ended Venus Express reappears from behind Venus Pre-planned thrill - Venus Express disappears behind Venus Venus Express main engine burn starts Venus Express slews and prepares to ‘brake’Venus Orbit Insertion timeline Looking at Venus

ESA’s Venus Express to reach final destination

Venus within ESA probe reach And now… straight to Venus!Successful Venus Express main engine test First light for the Venus Monitoring Camera Venus Express performs flawlessly, LEOP complete Venus Express mission operations update Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries