Latest Venus Orbit Stories

Europe -- Venus Express mission controllers at ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC) are in intensive preparation for an 11 April arrival at the spacecraft's namesake destination.The critical manoeuvre will involve a deft combination of basic physics, expert spacecraft engineering and precise timing.Next month's Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI) will mark the arrival of the first ESA mission at Venus, one of the Solar System's most enigmatic planets. Orbit insertion comprises a series of...

ESA -- A dense curtain of mysteries surrounding Venus, the hot and hazy sister planet to Earth, awaits to be opened after the launch of Venus Express, the next planetary probe of the European Space Agency. On Wednesday, 26 October 2005, the sky over the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, will be illuminated by the blast from a Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying this precious spacecraft aloft. The celestial motion of the planets in our Solar System has given Venus Express the window to travel to...