Monday, November 14, 2005
Venus Express probe launched
The Venus Express probe, the first space mission in over 10 years to Earth's closest neighbour, was launched on Wednesday aboard a Soyez-Fregat rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome.
The rocket lifted off at 9.03 hours IST and the probe was to separate from it two hours later to embark on its 163-day journey to Venus.
The launch of the probe, originally scheduled for October 26, was delayed due to "contamination" detected inside the fairing -- the bullet-shaped hood that covers the payload on the top of the rocket -- in final checks at Baikonur.
Venus Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) first probe to the planet, will explore its unusual stormy atmosphere and runaway global warming in the hope of better understanding Earth's greenhouse-gas problem.
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is similar in size, mass and age to Earth but has a vastly different and ferociously hot weather system.
Also known as the Evening Star, thanks to the bright light it reflects from the Sun, the planet is blanketed by thick clouds of suffocating gas driven by often hurricane-force winds and a surface pressure and temperature high enough to crush and melt lead.
The planet's clouds reflect back 80 per cent of the Sun's radiation and absorb another 10 per cent, leaving just 10 per cent to filter down to the surface.
But the clouds provide such effective insulation the surface zone becomes a pressure cooker capable of melting metal.
The rocket lifted off at 9.03 hours IST and the probe was to separate from it two hours later to embark on its 163-day journey to Venus.
The launch of the probe, originally scheduled for October 26, was delayed due to "contamination" detected inside the fairing -- the bullet-shaped hood that covers the payload on the top of the rocket -- in final checks at Baikonur.
Venus Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) first probe to the planet, will explore its unusual stormy atmosphere and runaway global warming in the hope of better understanding Earth's greenhouse-gas problem.
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is similar in size, mass and age to Earth but has a vastly different and ferociously hot weather system.
Also known as the Evening Star, thanks to the bright light it reflects from the Sun, the planet is blanketed by thick clouds of suffocating gas driven by often hurricane-force winds and a surface pressure and temperature high enough to crush and melt lead.
The planet's clouds reflect back 80 per cent of the Sun's radiation and absorb another 10 per cent, leaving just 10 per cent to filter down to the surface.
But the clouds provide such effective insulation the surface zone becomes a pressure cooker capable of melting metal.
