Venus Express, Mars Express Mission Extension Approved Options

[cndwrld]

The Science Programme Committee (SPC) of the European Space Agency (ESA) has today approved the mission extensions for Venus Express and Mars Express.

This means that both missions are funded for operations through May 2009.


For Venus Express, the long term mission operation plans are completed through October 2007. Work will now begin on the long term planning for the extended mission, and this will be one topic for discussion at the upcoming Science Working Team meeting in March. This period will also include moving the Venus Express Science Operations Center from the European Science and Technology Center in Noordwijk, The Netherlands to Villafranca, Spain, located about 30 Km west of Madrid.

For the medium term (monthly) planning, Medium Term Plan (MTP) 13 planning is completed, and MTP 14 is almost completed. MTP 15 planning will be completed in March.

Short term operations currently have commands being executed for Medium Term Plan 11, and we'll be entering month 12 commanding soon.

Best regards-

Don Merritt

[cndwrld]

The official announcement of the VEX and MEX extensions:

ESA extends two spacecraft missions
United Press International
February 27, 2007

PARIS, France (UPI) -- The European Space Agency extended its Mars Express and Venus Express missions until May 2009.

The mission extensions announced Tuesday were unanimously approved by the ESA`s Science Program Committee last Friday.

The ESA said the committee`s action was in recognition of the outstanding legacy that Mars Express and Venus Express are building for future generations of scientists.

Both missions have allowed an amazing amount of scientific discoveries of the highest quality, the space agency said.

Results achieved by Mars Express so far include the first subsurface radar sounding of another planet; and the first comprehensive study of the mineralogical composition of a planet`s surface.

Venus Express, only halfway through its initially planned nominal mission, has revealed features never detected in such detail before.
Those include the huge, 'double-eyed' atmospheric vortex at Venus South Pole and its 3-D structure.

Mars Express was launched June 2, 2003, and reached Mars six months later. Venus Express was launched Nov. 9, 2005, and arrived to its destination after a five-month journey.