![]() The orbit insertion manoeuvre took place on 11 April 2006. The spacecraft was put on an arrival trajectory to Venus with mid-course navigation and a final course adjustment was performed on 29 March 2006 to fine-tune the arrival hyperbola for Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI). No routine science operations were planned during the cruise phase.ĭuring the cruise to Venus, the spacecraft was contacted daily for health checks and navigation using the High Gain Antenna. After a coast phase of about 70 minutes in the low Earth orbit, a second Fregat engine burn, lasting 16 minutes, moved the combined craft from the parking orbit onto an escape trajectory, after which the Fregat stage and Venus Express separated.Īfter launch and separation from the last of the four launcher stages, Venus Express spent 153 days in an interplanetary transfer orbit.Īfter the spacecraft acquired Sun pointing and deployed its solar arrays, some two hours after launch, spacecraft commissioning started, followed by payload health checks. The three-stage Soyuz launcher lifted the Fregat autonomous fourth stage mated together with Venus Express into a sub-orbital trajectory.Īfter separation from the Soyuz third stage, a Fregat main engine burn (at an altitude of about 200 kilometres) for around 20 seconds placed the Fregat-Venus Express composite into an almost circular parking orbit. Venus Express was launched on 9 November 2005, at 3:33 UT by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ![]() ![]() Mission operations overview Soyuz-Fregat carrying Venus Express lifts off ![]()
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