Press Release 06/2006 - 11th April 2006

Venus Express is in orbit around Venus

On April 11, 10:10 CET, the ESA Venus Express spacecraft was successfully inserted in the polar orbit around Venus.

The 53 minutes burn of the main engine placed the spacecraft in the Capture Orbit around Venus with parameters close to the predicted ones: altitude in pericentre ~400 km, altitude in apocentre ~330,000 km, and revolution period of 9 days. After the burn was completed the spacecraft automatically returned to the Earth pointing orientation and restored telecommunications with the Cebreros ground station.

During the first day in orbit the satellite will restore all functionalities that were shut down for the orbit insertion maneuver. The spacecraft will also be flipped to continue telecommunications with the big dish antenna. If these operations are successful the first VMC images can be expected in the afternoon of April, 13.

In the next two weeks several additional burns will be used to lower the apocentre and form the nominal science orbit with apocentre distance of ~66,000 km.

Figure: Artist's impression of the Venus Express orbit insertion on 11 April 2006 (Image: ESA)

Further informations

Venus Express at MPS

Dr. Wojciech Markiewicz (PI VMC)
Tel.: 05556-979-294

Dr. Dmitri Titov
Tel.: 05556-979-212

Dr. Horst Uwe Keller
Tel.: 05556-979-248 (Sekretary)

Dr. Markus Fränz
Tel.: 05556-979-441

Dr. Joachim Woch
Tel.: 05556-979-447

Dr. Norbert Krupp (Press)
Tel.: 05556-979-154

Dr. Bernd Wöbke
Tel.: 05556-979-379