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Article: Europe's Venus Express space probe enters planet's orbit
- Article from:
- China Daily
- Article date:
- April 12, 2006
CopyrightCopyright 2006 China Daily. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Europe's first space probe to Venus slipped smoothly into the
planet's orbit yesterday and sent its first signals from there to
Earth, ground controllers said.
The 1.3-ton Venus Express took off on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur
in Kazakhstan last November, travelling 400 million kilometres
through space to a mission scheduled to last 486 days.
"Everything went as it was planned, clearly, without
difficulties," Gaele Winters, European Space Agency (ESA) director of
operations, told a news conference. "This is a great success," he
said.
Priced at a relatively modest 220 million euros (US$265 million)
and built by firms from 14 countries, the Venus Express underlines
the ambition of European ...