Venus Express in Orbit Around Venus

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express ended its 153-day, 249-million-mile cruise to the inner solar system Tuesday and began orbiting Venus.

The Paris-based ESA said the spacecraft, launched Nov. 9, fired its main engine at 3:17 a.m. EDT for a 50-minute burn, which slowed it from 18,000 mph and into orbit.

During the next month, the Venus Express spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers to reach its operational orbit. It will move from a highly elongated 9-day orbit to a 24-hour polar orbit, culminating at 41,000 miles.

The orbiter will then conduct in-depth observations of the structure, chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere of Venus for at least two Venusian days — 486 Earth days.

With the arrival of Venus Express, ESA is the only space agency to have science operations under way around four planets: Venus, the moon, Mars and Saturn, said David Southwood, ESA’s director of science programs. We are really proud to deliver such a capability to the international science community.