ESA's Venus Express Probe will arrive at destination in four weeks, on 11 April at around 09:00 GMT. This will involve a one-hour burn of its main engine to decelerate the space probe enough so that it can be captured by Venus' gravity. This is a periluous operation, and ESA has done everything to ensure its success. Venus Express is the first probe to visit Venus in 15 years. Its objective is a comprehensive investigation of the atmosphere of Earth's sister planet, which is very different from ours which might provide clues for better understanding the history and future evolution of our own atmosphere.
Today's Exchange provides the pre-event story for the Venus Express Orbit Insertion on 11 April, which will be covered live by ESA TV from ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.

5 May 2009: remark about preview video: The same production exists in a better quality preview compression:
vxp_orbit-insertion_27-10-06 in Quicktime high and WMV high only
""Venus Express, Ready for orbit insertion""
Venus Orbit Inservtion (VOI) Scheduled for 11 April 2006
10:00:30 A-Roll Start
10:00:40 Venus... one of the brightest objects, last autumn, in the evening sky - and now attracting the eye as a luminous Morning Star. As if Earth's neighbour had been beckoning us to come... Zoom on Venus in evening landscape
10:00:53 After its launch from Baikonur on the 9 November, ESA's spacecraft embarked on a 350 million kilometre journey to place itself in orbit around Earth's nearest, and still very mysterious neighbour. Soyuz lift-off, spacecraft and Venus 3-D animation
10:01:09 Clip Don McCOY, VEX Project Manager ""From the moment of launch... ... whole system is working excellently.""
10:01:36 During the cruise, the spacecraft's seven science instruments were