Starsem scores another success with an on-target launch of Venus Express

November 9, 2005

The European Space Agency's Venus Express is heading to its 2006 planetary encounter following the spacecraft's liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome this morning aboard a Soyuz launcher.

Venus Express mission officials said the 1,240-kg. probe was operating perfectly in space, and has been communicating with ground controllers via its low-gain antenna.

This success underscores Starsem's ability to provide commercial launch services for a full-range of mid-sized of payloads, and it follows the company's August 14 mission that orbited the Galaxy 14 telecommunications satellite for U.S. operator PanAmSat.

Today's Soyuz lift-off with Venus Express occurred at 09h33 local time from the Cosmodrome on the Kazakhstan steppe. An initial ignition of the launcher's Fregat upper-stage placed Venus Express into a low-Earth parking orbit, while the second Fregat firing propelled the probe on its interplanetary trajectory.

Venus Express is to arrive at Earth's nearest neighboring planet in April 2006, and will study the Venusian atmosphere and its clouds in unprecedented detail and accuracy. The spacecraft is similar in design to the European Space Agency's Mars Express, which was launched by Starsem aboard another Soyuz in June 2003, and currently is orbiting the Red Planet.

Preparations will soon begin for Starsem's next mission, which is scheduled for late December from Baikonur Cosmodrome. This launch will carry the first of two in-orbit validation spacecraft for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system.