May 7 2006
From The Space Library
Less than one month after insertion into orbit, and after achieving 16 loops around the planet Venus, ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft reached its final operational elliptical orbit—a 24-hour polar orbit at a range of 66,000 kilometers (41,000 miles) to 250 kilometers (155 miles) over Venus. Venus Express Project Scientist Håkan Svedhem stated that this orbit was “designed to perform the best possible observations of Venus, given the scientific objectives of the mission,” including “global observations of the Venusian atmosphere, of the surface characteristics and of the interaction of the planetary environment with the solar wind. It allows detailed high resolution observations near pericentre and the North Pole,” enabling scientists to “study the very little explored region around the South Pole for long durations at a medium scale.”
ESA, “Venus Express Has Reached Final Orbit,” 9 May 2006, http://www.esa.int/esaMIVenus_Express/SEM3308ATME_0.html (accessed 2 April 2010).
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