14 DAY TRIAL // European Space Agency's spacecraft to Venus has successfully passed one of the critical steps of its mission - testing its main engine. The engine fired for three seconds which caused a change in velocity by almost 11 km per hour.
The test was conducted 100 days after the launch. Venus Express needs its engine for braking on arrival at Venus - the spacecraft must slow down in order to be captured in orbit around the planet. This next event, the Venus Orbit Insertion maneuver, will happen on 11 April 2006. The main engine will fire for about 51 minutes in the opposite direction to the spacecraft motion. This braking will allow the spacecraft to counteract the pull of the Sun and Venus, and to start orbiting the planet.
All data recorded during the test are now carefully analyzed by Astrium (who built the spacecraft) and by ESA's engineers. They want to know the performance of the engine in every detail.
Venus Express is currently at a distance of about 47 million kilometers from Earth.
Photo Credits: ESA