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Report for Period 20 December to 26 December 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during the reporting period. This week's activities focussed on performing the last science operations before Venus Express operations enter the solar conjunction phase on 29 December. All commands related to autonomous operations for the forthcoming solar conjunction phase were uplinked to the spacecraft on 25 December (DOY 359).

Report for Period 28 November to 25 December 2009

The reporting period covers four weeks of nominal operations for the Rosetta spacecraft. Following the successful completion of the mission's last Earth swingby in the previous reporting period, all instruments are currently switched off. The spacecraft is now cruising towards asteroid Lutetia. Several activities required for the refresh of all spacecraft Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROMs) were conducted during the reporting period.

Report for Period 13 December to 19 December 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. The mission planning activities were focussed on the planning for the next two weeks leading up to the solar conjunction period, and for the conjunction period itself, which runs from 29 December 2009 to 22 January 2010.

Report for Period 6 December to 12 December 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. A pre-solar conjunction test was successfully performed at Cebreros on DOY 343. The outcome of the test was the final ground station configuration set-up that will be used during the upcoming phase of Venus Express superior conjunction operations. These operations will cover a period of about three weeks around the superior conjunction of Venus on 11 January 2010.

Report for period 17 November to 7 December 2009

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected. Following the formal approval of the HIFI recovery plan on 25 November, its implementation is well underway, with the complete switch on of HIFI expected in January 2010.

Report for Period 29 November to 5 December 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. Strong rain at the site of the Cebreros ground station on 29 November temporarily affected the downlink. Part of the data originally planned to be transmitted to Earth was stored aboard Venus Express and successfully retrieved two days later.

Main events and activities

On 10 November the eighth Mars Express eclipse season started, which will last until 19 April 2010. The eighth Mars Express occultation season has been running already since 20 September and will continue until 15 August 2010.

Report for Period 22 November to 28 November 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 14 November to 27 November 2009

The reporting period covers the first two weeks after Rosetta's third Earth swingby. The scientific observations linked to the Earth swingby phase were concluded successfully. Fine orbit determination computations were conducted after the Earth swingby to verify Rosetta was on the desired outbound trajectory. These indicated that a clean-up trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM) was necessary to correct for a small inaccuracy. The clean-up TCM, with a delta-V of about 58 cm/s, was successfully performed on 23 November.

Report for Period 15 November to 21 November 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. A pre-solar conjunction test with a new ground station configuration was successfully performed at New Norcia on DOY 320. The test was done in preparation of the upcoming phase of Venus Express superior conjunction operations. These operations will cover a period of about three weeks around the superior conjunction of Venus on 11 January 2010. Another pre-solar conjunction test will be performed early December at the Cebreros ground station.

Report for period 21 October to 17 November 2009

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected. The HIFI anomaly investigation has been concluded and the planned recovery activities are now expected to be formally approved on 25 November.

Report for Period 8 November to 14 November 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. Routine maintenance was carried out at the Cebreros ground station on 10 and 11 November.

Report for Period 7 November to 13 November 2009

On 13 November at 07:45:40 UTC Rosetta flew past the Earth for its last swingby manoeuvre, which was conducted as planned and with the expected results. The final approach to the Earth was very stable and no further trajectory correction manoeuvres were required at the two remaining reserved slots, 24 hours and 6 hours before closest approach.

Report for Period 31 October to 6 November 2009

During the reporting period Rosetta's approach to the Earth for the swingby manoeuvre on 13 November continued according to the plan. The navigation campaign did not require any trajectory correction manoeuvre in the allocated slot on 5 November (DoY 309).

Report for Period 1 November to 7 November 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week.

Main events and activities

On 2 October, ESA's Science programme Committee (SPC) approved an extension of mission operations, pushing back the mission end date to 31 December 2012 (with a confirmation mid-term review in 2010). On 5 October, a small orbit correction (with a delta-V of 4 cm/s) was executed to adjust the ground track for the HRSC instrument.

Report for Period 25 October to 31 October 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week.

Report for Period 17 October to 30 October 2009

The reporting period covers two weeks of the navigation campaign leading to Rosetta's third Earth swingby on 13 November. The campaign's primary trajectory correction manoeuvre was successfully executed on DoY 295 to set the spacecraft onto the right path for the Earth swingby.

Report for Period 18 October to 24 October 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during this week. Two orbit control manoeuvres were successfully performed; one to lower the orbit's apocentre altitude and one to raise the pericentre altitude. On DOY 293 the regular DDOR measurements were performed.

Report for period 23 September to 21 October 2009

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected. Investigations for the recovery of the HIFI instrument are progressing well, and a plan for switching on the instrument's back-up electronics is being finalized.