Destination Venus

The European Space Agency's probe Venus Express will finally arrive at its
destination on 11 April after a five-month, 400 million km journey. The
space craft took off from Earth on 9 November 2005 on a mission to gather
data about the mysterious planet Venus.

Before taking an orbit around the planet, the probe will have to undergo a
series of engine burns and manoeuvres to reduce its velocity of 29,000 km
per hour by 15 per cent. The spacecraft will ignite its main engine for 50
minutes to achieve deceleration and place itself into an elliptical orbit
around the planet. Over the subsequent days, a series of additional burns
will be done to lower the orbit apocentre and to control the pericentre. The
aim is to put the probe in a 24-hour orbit around Venus by early May.

The completion of Venus Express's journey will be covered live by European
Space Agency TV from the ESA Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
The live transmission will be carried free-to-air. Complete details of the
various satellite feeds are listed at http://television.esa.int The event
will also be covered on the web at http://venus.esa.int

http://www.rsgb.org/news/gb2rs.htm