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

[edstrick]

Does that mean they're also EXTENDING the time before they have to release more than a dribble ? <ducks>