spacetoday.net: Venus Express enters final orbit

Posted: Wed, May 10, 2006, 7:35 AM ET (1135 GMT)
Venus Express illustration (ESA)

ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has entered its final orbit around Venus, even as spacecraft engineers troubleshoot a problem with an instrument on the spacecraft. Venus Express, which entered its initial orbit around the planet last month, completed a series of five maneuvers between April 15 and May 6 to adjust its orbit into its desired configuration, a polar orbit ranging between 250 and 66,000 kilometers above the planet. The orbit allows for up-close studies of the planet's north polar regions and long-duration studies of its southern polar area. Scientific operations of the spacecraft are scheduled to begin in early June. However, New Scientist reported Monday that a mirror that is part of the spacecraft's Planetary Fourier Spectrometer has stuck in an unusable position. The cause of the stoppage is unknown, but project scientists said they have been able to move the mirror somewhat and hope to be able to position it into a usable configuration as early as this week.