European Space Agency officials breathed a sigh of relief this week after their Venus Express spacecraft entered a highly elliptical orbit around Venus. Similar although riskier maneuvers have failed at Mars, and ground controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, were relieved by the 10 April milestone. The 50-minute rocket burn that put the craft into orbit around Earth's planetary neighbor was considered the most dangerous part of the mission after the launch, 5 months ago.
The $260 million spacecraft will conduct climate and atmospheric studies of the planet's surface in unprecedented detail using ultraviolet and visible light, radar, and infrared cameras. Magnetometers and spectrometers will study the effects of solar winds on the atmosphere.
Everyone is "very pleased," says Fred Taylor of the University of Oxford, U.K., one of the founders of the mission. The first set of data from Venus Express is expected in about a month.
