Venus Express Enters Final Venus Orbit
Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 18:00 CDT
The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has entered final operational orbit less than one month after initial insertion into a Venus orbit.
The milestone occurred Sunday, after 16 positioning loops around the planet, the Paris-based ESA announced Tuesday.
Venus Express arrived at its destination April 11 after a 5-month interplanetary journey. Its initial orbit was an ellipse ranging from 205,000 miles at its farthest point from the Venus surface to less than 250 miles at its closest.
During its 9-day positioning orbit, Venus Express performed a series of maneuvers to gradually reduce the altitudes. The now polar orbit ranges in altitude between 41,000 miles and 155 miles and the spacecraft is taking 24 hours to orbit the planet.
This is the orbit designed to perform the best possible observations of Venus, given the scientific objectives of the mission. These include global observations of the Venusian atmosphere, of the surface characteristics and of the interaction of the planetary environment with the solar wind, said Hakan Svedhem, Venus Express project scientist.
Source: United Press International
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